Solvothermal synthesis of single-crystalline hexagonal cobalt nanofibers with high coercivity

Novel hexagonal cobalt nanofibers were solvothermally prepared by using ethylene glycol as a reducing agent and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyoxyethylene lauryl ether (Brij30) as surfactants. The lengths of the Co nanofibers are up to several hundreds of micrometers, and the diameters are less than 100 nm. The selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern indicates the Co nanofibers present single-crystalline nature. At room temperature, the Co nanofibers show significant ferromagnetic feature with a coercivity of 343.2 Oe, which is larger than their bulk counterpart and most of the other 1D Co nano materials. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.