Single crystalline magnetite nanotubes.

We descried a method to synthesize single crystalline Fe3O4 nanotubes by wet-etching the MgO inner cores of MgO/Fe3O4 core-shell nanowires. Homogeneous Fe3O4 nanotubes with controllable length, diameter, and wall thickness have been obtained. Resistivity of the Fe3O4 nanotubes was estimated to be approximately 4 x 10-2 Omega cm at room temperature. Magnetoresistance of approximately 1% was observed at T = 77 K when a magnetic field of B = 0.7 T was applied. The synthetic strategy presented here may be extended to a variety of materials such as YBCO, PZT, and LCMO which should provide ideal candidates for fundamental studies of superconductivity, piezoelectricity, and ferromagnetism in nanoscale structures.