The electrospinning method has been employed to fabricate ultrafine nanofibers of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene for the first time with a mixture of solvents of different dielectric constants and conductivities. The possibility of producing highly oriented nanofibers from ultrahigh-molecular-weight polymers suggests new ways of fabricating ultrastrong, porous, and single-component nanocomposite fibers with improved properties. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.