George, G.Anandhan, S.2026-02-052015RSC Advances, 2015, 5, 99, pp. 81429-81437https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ra11135hhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/26217In this study, two different sacrificial polymeric binders, namely poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEtOx) and poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN) along with cobalt acetate tetrahydrate (CATH), as the metal oxide precursor, were used for the fabrication of Co<inf>3</inf>O<inf>4</inf> nanofibres through sol-gel electrospinning. It was observed that the degradation behaviour and physical properties of SAN and PEtOx influenced the structure, morphology and spectral properties of Co<inf>3</inf>O<inf>4</inf> nanofibres, as the properties of the nanofibres obtained from the aforementioned systems were compared with each other. The grain size, shape and the activation energies for grain growth of Co<inf>3</inf>O<inf>4</inf> nanofibres obtained from these two polymeric systems were different. This difference in grain size and shape caused a difference in the optical band gap energies and the magnetic properties of the Co<inf>3</inf>O<inf>4</inf> nanofibres. This study reveals that one can tailor the characteristics of cobalt oxide nanofibres by an appropriate selection of polymeric binders for sol-gel electrospinning. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.Activation energyAutomata theoryBindersBinsCobaltElectrospinningEnergy gapGrain growthGrain size and shapeMetalsNanofibersSol-gel processSol-gelsSpinning (fibers)StyreneComparative studiesDegradation behavioursMetal oxide precursorsOptical band gap energyPhysicochemical propertyPoly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)Poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile)Spectral propertiesPolymers