Is electrospinning a suitable technique to develop heterogeneous catalysts?

In the last decades, the use of nanotechnologies has allowed the development of increasingly high-performant systems, small in size and with a high specific surface area, which find countless applications in the most varied fields. There are many techniques for the production of nanostructured materials, among which, the most interesting and promising is the electrospinning technology, allowing the production of fibrous structures. Its advantages mainly derive from the simplicity, inexpensiveness and easily transferable process to an industrial scale up. It is also acknowledged for safe repeatability, great versatility and the possibility to accurate control the size of fibres. On the other side, catalysts are fundamental in a broad range of reactions, most of all affording the pressing environmental issue of the global warming, as their use in decarbonation technologies. To this purpose a detailed literature review of the application of electrospun materials in heterogeneous catalysis was considered and, in light of fibres featuring characteristics, comparative results in the methanation process of nickel-based cerium oxide microfibres catalysts are illustrated. Therefore, in this study, it is proposed the possibility to implement and tailor the electrospinning technology in the catalysis field, owing to give a contribute to the development of innovative and efficient systems. Two different approaches were followed in materials preparation, as to both optimize the production process and the catalytic performance. Results, compared to the traditional powder catalyst, showed interesting aspects, noteworthy to be further explored.