Room temperature ferromagnetism in undoped ZnO nanofibers prepared by electrospinning

We report ferromagnetic behavior in undoped ZnO nanofibers prepared by electrospinning a solution of zinc acetate and poly vinyl alcohol followed by annealing at 550 °C for about 90 min. X-ray diffraction patterns of the heat treated as-spun composite fibers reveal the formation of ZnO nanowires in wurtzite structure with no noticeable impurity phases. ZnO nanowires annealed between 500 °C and 600 °C exhibited room temperature ferromagnetism with decreasing magnetization with increasing annealing temperature. Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in as-spun fibers annealed in air as well as under vacuum. However, vacuum annealed nanofibers show higher magnetization as compared to air annealed fibers, which indicates that oxygen vacancy is a cause for the observed room temperature ferromagnetism in the ZnO nanofibers