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Isothermal melt‐spinning of two thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs), a wholly aromatic copolyester KU‐9211 (also named K161 from Bayer AG) and an aliphatic containing TLCP, PET/PHB60 (Tennessee Eastman), was studied to analyze the effect of processing conditions on fiber properties. Fibers were melt‐spun from a capillary rheometer equipped with an isothermal chamber in which cross‐flowed air was used as the cooling medium. The processing variables studied included the extrusion temperature, the extrusion rate, the cooling conditions, and the draw ratio. As‐spun fibers were characterized by measuring storage moduli and molecular orientation parameters as a function of draw ratio under various processing conditions. Among the processing variables studied, the draw ratio was the primary factor in determining both the fiber modulus and the molecular orientation. The extrusion rate did not appear to affect the fiber properties within the range studied. The properties of K161 fibers were also dependent on the extrusion and cooling temperatures, while PET/PHB60 fibers were rather insensitive to the processing temperatures within data scatter and temperatures studied. A composite model based on a rigid‐rod rotation mechanism and the deformation of nematic domains in an elongational flow field was used to model the experimental results and was compared with other theories available. Conformance of data to the composite model was obtained by use of a single temperature dependent parameter n, suggesting that the rigid‐rod rotation mechanism could be used to predict the orientation development of TLCPs. The Halpin‐Tsai equations and the orthotropic equation for angular dependence were used to describe the elastic properties of the TLCP fibers.

NiFe 2 0 4 is an important high frequency soft magnetic material due to its ultra high resistivity; however, its initial permeability is rather low. Conventional magnetic ferrites are manufactured through ceramic processing. In an effort to explore innovative approaches for fabricating ferrite materials with improved performance, a study of fabricating nanostructured NiFe 2 0 4 using wet chemical approaches has been carried out. The synthetic NiFe 2 0 4 precursor was synthesized by a citrate reaction method followed by calcinating at various temperatures. Systematic studies concerning the crystallographic structure, the nanostructure and morphology of the particle, the phase homogeneity, the conditions for chemical reaction completion, and the magnetic properties have been carried out using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and magnetic measurements. The results show that by using a citrate reaction approach, pure phase and stoichiometric NiFe 2 0 4 can be fabricated easily, and the particle size can be controlled on a nanometer scale, even at high calcination temperatures. In addition, a comparative study of the NiFe 2 0 4 fabricated by conventional ceramic processing and this new citrate processing will be presented.