Core-sheath polymer nanofibers with optoelectronic materials as the sheath and easily spinnable polymer as the core were prepared by co-electrospinning. Three prototypical systems of polystyrene/poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PS/PPV), poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PVA/PPV) and polystyrene/tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum (PS/Alq(3)) were investigated. The fluorescence microscopy images showed that the resulting nanofibers with uniform morphologies exhibited outstanding emission properties. The core-sheath structures of these nanofibers were observed by TEM investigation. The photoluminescence spectra indicated that the fluorescent properties of these functional core-sheath nanofibers could be influenced by the interaction between core and sheath materials. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.