Ytterbium oxide nanofibers: fabrication and characterization for energy applications

Metal oxide nanomaterials are widely used in many applications of renewable energy. Ytterbium oxide (Yb2O3) also attracts attention due to its similar structure to ZnO (similar to 3,26 eV) and TiO2 (similar to 3,36 eV) in terms of bandgap energy. In this study, Yb2O3 belonging to the lanthanide oxide family was produced as nanofiber forms by using the electrospinning technique, which allows for large-scale production, for the first time. The morphological, structural, optical, and phase properties of the produced nanofibers were investigated via XRD, SEM-Mapping, TEM, FTIR, UV-Vis, and XPS characterization techniques. As a result of these analyses, it was determined that the Yb2O3 nanofibers with a diameter of 125 +/- 15 nm have a cubic crystal structure and a bandgap of 3.32 eV. The results of this study have shown that the Yb2O3 nanofibers are capable of performing performance evaluations in many different energy conversion applications and others.