An electrospinning process was used to fabricate cobalt ferrite (CoFe(2)O(4))-embedded polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. Oleic acid-modified CoFe(2)O(4) nanoparticles were dispersed in the PAN before spinning. The surface morphologies and structures of the nanofibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SEM and TEM observation showed that the average diameter of the CoFe(2)O(4)/PAN nanofibers was 110 rim, and the magnetic CoFe(2)O(4) nanoparticles were embedded in the PAN nanofibers. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to characterize the CoFe(2)O(4)/PAN and CoFe(2)O(4)/carbon nanofibers. Fiber magnetic properties were measured by vibrating sample magnetometry, showing that the saturation magnetization of the CoFe(2)O(4)/PAN nanofibers was 45 emu/g and that the fibers demonstrated superparamagnetic behavior. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.