Synthesis and characterization of Pd-doped Co nanofibers as a multifunctional nanostructure

Due to the axial ratio feature, bimetallic nanofibers are expected to have novel characteristics. In this study, Pd-doped Co nanofibers could be successfully prepared using simple, low cost, high yield and effective technique; electrospinning. The introduced nanofibers have been synthesized by calcination of electrospun nanofibers composed of Pd NPs/cobalt acetate tetrahydrate/poly(vinyl alcohol) in a vacuum atmosphere. The introduced Pd-Co nanofibers revealed distinct photocatalytic activity as an almost 90% from the methylene blue dye has been oxidized within 30 min. As an active layer in a diode, the introduced nanofibers showed good performance. Magnetic properties study indicated that Pd nanoparticles negatively affected the saturation magnetization of the cobalt nanofibers, however very low remenant magnetization was obtained (7.7 emu/g) compared to the un-doped Co nanofibers (69.22 emu/g) which concludes that Pd modified Co to be magnetically clean material. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.