This Review provides an overview of the synthesis of one-dimensional (1D) composite nanomaterials by electrospinning and their applications. After a brief description of the development of the electrospinning technique, the transformation of an inorganic nanocomponent or polymer into another kind of polymer or inorganic matrix is discussed in terms of the electrospinning process, including the direct-dispersed method, gas-solid reaction, in situ photoreduction, sol-gel method, emulsion electrospinning method, solvent evaporation, and coaxial electrospinning. In addition, various applications of such 1D composite nanomaterials are highlighted in terms of electronic and optical nanodevices, chemical and biological sensors, catalysis and electrocatalysis, superhydrophobic surfaces, environment, energy, and biomedical fields. An increasing number of investigations show that electrospinning has been not only a focus of academic study in the laboratory but is also being applied in a great many technological fields.

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A polymeric membrane material for efficient water desalination based on a cross-linked type I bicontinuous cubic (QI) lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) assembly is described. This ordered, nanoporous, polymer material is formed by the self-assembly of a cross-linkable gemini amphiphile in water and contains interpenetrating organic networks separated from one another by a continuous, ultrathin water layer surface (ca. 0.75 nm gap spacing) with overall cubic symmetry. Supported membranes of this material are produced by hot-pressing the initial LLC monomer gel at high pressure through a commercial microporous hydrophilic membrane support at 70 °C and then radically photocross-linking the infused QI monomer phase. In stirred dead-end water filtration tests, the resulting 40-μm thick, optically transparent, supported LLC membranes exhibit 95−99.9% rejection of dissolved salt ions, neutral molecules and macromolecules, and molecular ions in the 0.64−1.2 nm size range in a single pass. This rejection performance is slightly better than that of a commercial reverse osmosis (RO) membrane for the same solutes under the same test conditions, and significantly better than that of a commercial porous nanofiltration membrane. The LLC polymer material also exhibits a thickness- and pressure-normalized water permeability that is similar to or just slightly lower than the dense active layer materials used in current RO membranes. It is believed that the 3-D interconnected water manifold system in the cross-linked QI-phase material allows small water molecules (0.27 nm kinetic diameter) to pass through with good efficiency, while effectively rejecting dissolved solutes close in size to, or larger than, the about 0.75 nm water layer gap spacing.

It is urgently required to develop highly efficient and stable bifunctional non‐noble metal electrocatalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for water splitting. In this study, a facile electrospinning followed by a post‐carbonization treatment to synthesize nitrogen‐doped carbon nanofibers (NCNFs) integrated with Ni and Mo2C nanoparticles (Ni/Mo2C‐NCNFs) as water splitting electrocatalysts is developed. Owing to the strong hydrogen binding energy on Mo2C and high electrical conductivity of Ni, synergetic effect between Ni and Mo2C nanoparticles significantly promote both HER and OER activities. The optimized hybrid (Ni/Mo2C(1:2)‐NCNFs) delivers low overpotentials of 143 mV for HER and 288 mV for OER at a current density of 10 mA cm−2. An alkaline electrolyzer with Ni/Mo2C(1:2)‐NCNFs as catalysts for both anode and cathode exhibits a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a voltage of 1.64 V, which is only 0.07 V larger than the benchmark of Pt/C‐RuO2 electrodes. In addition, an outstanding long‐term durability during 100 h testing without obvious degradation is achieved, which is superior to most of the noble‐metal‐free electrocatalysts reported to date. This work provides a simple and effective approach for the preparation of low‐cost and high‐performance bifunctional electrocatalysts for efficient overall water splitting.

Electrospinning is the most facile and highly versatile approach to produce 1D polymeric, inorganic, and hybrid nanomaterials with a small diameter, controllable dimensions, and designed architectures. In particular, with large surface area, high porosity, low density, good directionality, and tunable composition, electrospun nanofibers and mats are regarded as ideal candidates for various kinds of electrochemical energy storage devices such as supercapacitors (SCs). In this review, the recent progress in electrospun electrode materials for SCs is presented, covering the architecture design and their electrochemical performance. After a brief introduction about SCs, the basic principles of the electrospinning technique are discussed. Following, attention is paid to the discussion of various electrospun nanofibers and mats including 1D carbons, metal oxides, metal sulfides, metal nitrides, conducting polymers and composite nanomaterials with various types of architectures as electrodes for SCs. The relationship between the composition, architecture, and the electrochemical performance is discussed in detail. Finally, some challenges and perspectives of future research of the electrospun nanofibers and mats for high performance SCs are highlighted. It is anticipated that this review would provide the researchers some inspiration for constructing new types of energy storage devices.