Aligned CuO nanorod arrays: fabrication and anisotropic ferromagnetism

Copper oxide (CuO) is a p-type semiconductor with a band gap of 1.2 eV, which is well known in high-temperature superconductor and antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials through Cu–O–Cu super-exchange interaction. In this paper, we report the strong anisotropic ferromagnetism (FM) in aligned CuO nanorod arrays synthesized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image shows that the CuO nanorod consists of a large number of smaller nanorods with almost the same growth direction. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern indicates that the CuO nanorods are well crystallized with highly preferred orientation of the [020] direction. These CuO nanorod arrays show room-temperature ferromagnetism, with strong magnetic anisotropy when the magnetic field is applied perpendicular or parallel to the rod axis. This phenomenon of room-temperature ferromagnetism in those aligned CuO nanorods might originate from uncompensated surface spins and shape anisotropy of the nanorods.