Electrospinning of polycrystalline barium titanate nanofibers with controllable morphology and alignment

We report the fabrication of BaTiO₃ nanofibers with controllable aspect ratio by electrospinning. Polycrystalline ribbon-like nanofibers ∼200 nm in width and ∼75 nm in thickness with grain sizes <30 nm were prepared by electrospinning a solution that contained barium-titanium alkoxide and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). Varying the concentration of alkoxide precursor resulted in the formation of BaTiO₃ fibrils <50 nm in diameter and fibers with ribbon-like morphology. Analysis by XRD and Raman scattering showed that amorphous BaTiO₃ without residual polymer could be generated by calcination at 500 °C, while for fibers calcined at 700 °C, the polarized ferroelectric tetragonal phase was obtained.