Ceramic fibers produced through electrospinning are highly esteemed photocatalytic materials, adept at converting solar energy into chemical energy. These fibers play a crucial role in applications such as degrading water pollutants and producing hydrogen energy, leveraging their high aspect ratio, flexibility, substantial surface area, and recyclability. In recent decades, electrospun ceramic fibers are increasingly relevant in the realms of clean energy and environmental protection.

The photocatalytic process leverages clean solar energy to trigger a variety of chemical reactions, generating high-value products. This presents a promising solution to energy crises and environmental issues. Nevertheless, the efficiency of photocatalysts, including those in electrospun ceramic fibers, is hampered by limitations in solar energy utilization and carrier lifetime. This paper reviews the advancements in ceramic fiber photocatalysts by electrospinning. This review begins by explicating the fundamental principles of the photocatalytic process and its theoretical challenges. Subsequently, the critical aspects of the electrospinning technique are succinctly outlined, offering insights into the process and guidance for experimental setups. Then, particular emphasis is placed on the development of visible-light-responsive catalysts, with a comprehensive introduction to strategies such as doping, surface plasmon resonance, upconversion luminescence, and other reported methods. These strategies can effectively expand the light absorption range, tailored through electrospinning parameters followed with proper thermal treatment process. Moreover, this review delves into methods for prolonging carrier lifetime and adjusting the position of the energy band, which are crucial not only for the occurrence of photochemical reactions but also for photocatalytic efficiency. This review discusses the main methods including heterojunction structures, morphology design, and defect engineering, as well as the technical means to implement these strategies in electrospun ceramic fibers. Regarding heterojunction structures, this review first categorizes them into metal-semiconductor heterojunctions and semiconductor-semiconductor heterojunctions, and further classifies semiconductor-semiconductor heterojunctions based on their intrinsic physical properties. This deep-going analysis on the construction of heterojunction has significant implications for the design of novel composite ceramic fiber photocatalysts. Finally, this review concludes with a summary and future perspectives on research in electrospinning technology and electrospun ceramic fibers for photocatalysis, aiming to propel the innovation in ceramic fiber photocatalytic materials.

Silver vanadates are promising visible-light-responded photocatalysts with suitable bandgap for solar absorption. However, the easy recombination of photogenerated carriers limits their performance. To overcome this obstacle, a novel 2D graphene oxide (GO) modified α-AgVO₃ nanorods (GO/α-AgVO₃) photocatalyst was designed herein to improve the separation of photocarriers. The GO/α-AgVO₃ was fabricated through a facile in-situ coprecipitation method at room temperature. It was found that the as-prepared 0.5 wt% GO/α-AgVO₃ exhibited the most excellent performance for rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition, with an apparent reaction rate constant 18 times higher than that of pure α-AgVO₃ under visible-light irradiation. In light of the first-principles calculations and the hetero junction analysis, the mechanism underpinned the enhanced photocatalytic performance was proposed. The enhanced photocatalytic performance was ascribed to the appropriate bandgap of α-AgVO₃ nanorods for visiblelight response and efficient separation of photocarriers through GO nanosheets. This work demonstrates the feasibility of overcoming the easy recombination of photogenerated carriers and provides a valuable GO/α-AgVO₃ photocatalyst for pollutant degradation.