| Abstract: | A new approach, combining in‐situ sol‐gel process with electrospinning, was used to prepare magnetic barium acetate/manganese acetate/poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite nanofibers. The composite gel was synthesized by sol‐gel method in the presence of 10 wt.% PVA aqueous solution. PVA was used as stabilizer and polymeric matrix. The resultant barium acetate/manganese acetate/PVA composite nanofibers were calcined at 1023 K for 5 h. This formed BaO/MnO nanocomposite crystalline fibers with average diameter less than 100 nm and were characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Energy Dispersive X‐ray Analysis (EDAX), powder X‐ray diffractometer (XRD), UV‐Vis‐Spectroscopy (UV) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) respectively. These composite fibers exhibited a uniform cylindrical morphology, with the BaO/MnO nanoparticles implanted in the fibers. M‐H curves were obtained at 300 K and 20 K. From the M‐H curves, room temperature ferromagnetism was observed at 300 K. At low temperatures, the ferromagnetic behavior was masked by the paramagnetic behavior. The saturation magnetization at 300 K was found to be 0.004 emu /g and the saturation magnetization at 20 K was found to be 0.658 emu /g. The magnetization at 20 K was found to be very large and it was several times larger than at 300 K. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) |
