Magnetic nanofibers of nickel ferrite prepared by electrospinning

This letter describes a simple procedure for fabricating randomly and uniaxially aligned nanofibers of nickel ferrite by electrospinning. Polycrystalline nanofibers of NiFe2O4 with an average diameter of 46 nm have been prepared by electrospinning a solution that contained poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) and alkoxide precursors to nickel and iron oxides, followed by hydrolysis and calcination at 550 °C in air. Magnetic hysteresis scans were performed on these nanofibers, in comparison with a powder sample prepared using the conventional sol–gel process. Significant differences in magnetic properties were noted between these two samples, and these differences seemed to be associated with the size and morphological differences between the nanofibers and the powders.