Fabrication of Inorganic Oxide Fiber Using a Cigarette Filter as a Template

Inorganic oxides with unique physical and chemical properties have attracted much attention because they can be applied in a wide range of fields. Herein, recycled cigarette filters are deacetylated to cellulose filters (CFs), which are then applied as templates to prepare fiber-like inorganic oxides (titanium dioxide, TiO₂, and silicon dioxide, SiO₂). Inorganic oxides are prepared using CF as a template by a typical sol–gel reaction of metal alkoxides. Owing to the fibrous structure of the CF template, the prepared inorganic oxides (TiO₂ and SiO₂) show similar fibrous structures, which was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis. Moreover, the prepared inorganic oxides (TiO₂ and SiO₂) show high surface areas and pore volumes. Furthermore, the TiO₂ fiber-like materials are evaluated for their photocatalytic properties by analyzing the methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) degradation. In this study, we provide a clean method, which can convert cellulose acetate-based waste into useful templates to prepare inorganic oxides with relatively simple steps, and the prepared inorganic oxides can be applied in water treatment.