Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO/PVA composite nanofibres by electrospinning

In this work, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and zinc acetate, with small quantity of cobalt acetate as dopant were used to prepare composite nanofibres by electrospinning technique. The obtained nanofibres were calcined at 520°C in air. After calcination of the above precursor fibres, ZnO or ZnO/PVA and Co doped ZnO/PVA composite nanofibres with a diameter of the order of 100 nm were obtained. The nanofibres were characterised by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques that showed presence of crystalline ZnO with slight amount of cobalt oxides and PVA after calcination.