Preparation of PSFO and LPSFO Nanofibers by Electrospinning and Their Electronic Transport and Magnetic Properties

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, Pr0.5Sr0.5FeO3 (PSFO) and La0.25Pr0.25Sr0.5FeO3 (LPSFO) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning and subsequent calcination, and their morphology, microstructure, electronic transport and magnetic properties were studied systematically. The temperature-dependent resistance curves of PSFO and LPSFO nanofibers were measured in the temperature range from 300 K down to 10 K. With the temperature lowering, the resistance increased gradually and the then decreased sharply due to the occurrence of ferromagnetic metal phase. The metal-insulator transition temperature was about 110 K and 180 K for PSFO and LPSFO nanofibers separately. The electronic conduction behavior above the transition temperature can be described by one-dimensional Mott’s variable-range hopping (VRH) model. The hysteresis loops and the field-cooled (FC) and zero-field-cooled (ZFC) curves showed that both PSFO and LPSFO nanofibers exhibit ferromagnetism. Although the doping of La reduces the overall magnetization intensity of the material, it increases the ferromagnetic ratio of the system, which may improve the performance of LPSFO in solid oxide fuel cell.