Electrospinning preparation, characterization and magnetic properties of cobalt-nickel ferrite (Co1-xNixFe2O4) nanofibers

Uniform Co1-xNixFe2O4(x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) nanofibers with average diameter of 110 nm and length up to several millimeters were prepared by calcination of electrospun precursor nanofibers containing polymer and inorganic salts. The as-spun and calcined nanofibers were characterized in detail by TG-DTA, XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, SAED and VSM, respectively, The effect of composition of the nanofibers on the structure and magnetic properties were investigated. The nanofibers are formed through assembling magnetic nanoparticles with poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) as the structure-directing template. The structural characteristics and magnetic properties of the resultant nanofibers vary with chemical composition and can be tuned by adjusting the Co/Ni ratio. Both lattice parameter and particle size decrease gradually with increasing nickel concentration. The saturation magnetization and coercivity lie in the range 29.3-56.4 emu/g and 210-1255 Oe, respectively, and both show a monotonously decreasing behavior with the increase in nickel concentration. Such changes in magnetic properties can mainly be attributed to the lower magnetocrystalline anisotropy and the smaller magnetic moment of Ni2+ ions compared to Co2+ ions. Furthermore, the coercivity of Co-Ni ferrite nanofibers is found to be superior to that of the corresponding nanoparticle counterparts, presumably due to their large shape anisotropy. These novel one-dimensional Co-Ni ferrite magnetic nanofibers can potentially be used in micro-/nanoelectronic devices, microwave absorbers and sensing devices. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.