Ferromagnetic Fe3O4 nanofibers: Electrospinning synthesis and characterization

In this paper, Fe3O4 nanofibers with average diameters of 100nm were successfully synthesized by electrospinning of PVP/Fe(NO3)·9H2O composite solution followed by calcinations and reduction. The resulting Fe3O4 nanofibers were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), transmission Mössbauer spectra (MS), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). These nanofibers showed a cubic structure and uniform and continuous morphology. The Fe3O4 nanofibers possessed a saturation magnetization Ms of 57.6emu/g. A large coercivity Hc of 188.4Oe together with a high remanence ratio Mr/Ms=0.28 is observed, which result from the shape anisotropy.