Low-Platinum-Content Exchange-Coupled CoPt Nanoalloys with Enhanced Magnetic Properties.

Bimetallic colloidal CoPt nanoalloys with low platinum content were successfully synthesized following a modified polyol approach. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies were performed to estimate the crystal structure, morphology, and surface functionalization of the colloids, respectively, while the room-temperature magnetic properties were measured using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The particles exhibit excellent uniformity, with a narrow size distribution, and display strong room-temperature hysteretic ferromagnetic behavior even in the as-made form.

LAPONITE® nanodisk-"decorated" FeO nanoparticles: a biocompatible nano-hybrid with ultrafast magnetic hyperthermia and MRI contrast agent ability.

Magnetic FeO nanoparticles "decorated" by LAPONITE® nanodisks have been materialized utilizing the Schikorr reaction following a facile approach and tested as mediators of heat for localized magnetic hyperthermia (MH) and as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents. The synthetic protocol involves the interaction between two layered inorganic compounds, ferrous hydroxide, Fe(OH), and the synthetic smectite LAPONITE® clay Na[(SiMgLi)O(OH)], towards the formation of superparamagnetic FeO nanoparticles, which are well decorated by the diamagnetic clay nanodisks. The latter imparts high negative -potential values (up to -34.

Tuning Easy Magnetization Direction and Magnetostatic Interactions in High Aspect Ratio Nanowires.

Cobalt nanowires have been synthesized by electrochemical deposition using track-etched anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) templates. Nanowires with varying spacing-to-diameter ratios were prepared, and their magnetic properties were investigated. It is found that the nanowires' easy magnetization direction switches from parallel to perpendicular to the nanowire growth direction when the nanowire's spacing-to-diameter ratio is reduced below 0.

Mechanochemical Synthesis and Nitrogenation of the NdFeCoTi Alloy for Permanent Magnet.

In this work, the mechanochemical synthesis method was used for the first time to produce powders of the nanocrystalline NdFeCoTi compound from NdO, FeO, Co and TiO. High-energy-milled powders were heat treated at 1000 °C for 10 min to obtain the ThMn-type structure. Volume fraction of the 1:12 phase was found to be as high as 95.

Facile Organometallic Synthesis of Fe-Based Nanomaterials by Hot Injection Reaction.

Fe-based colloids with a core/shell structure consisting of metallic iron and iron oxide were synthesized by a facile hot injection reaction of iron pentacarbonyl in a multi-surfactant mixture. The size of the colloidal particles was affected by the reaction temperature and the results demonstrated that their stability against complete oxidation related to their size. The crystal structure and the morphology were identified by powder X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, while the magnetic properties were studied at room temperature with a vibrating sample magnetometer.

Ni-Cu Nanoparticles and Their Feasibility for Magnetic Hyperthermia.

Ni-Cu nanoparticles have been synthesized by reducing Ni and Cu from metal precursors using a sol-gel route followed by annealing at 300 °C for 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10 h for controlled self-regulating magnetic hyperthermia applications. Particle morphology and crystal structure revealed spherical nanoparticles with a cubic structure and an average size of 50, 60, 53, 87, and 87 nm for as-made and annealed samples at 300 °C for 1, 3, 6, and 10 h, respectively. Moreover, hysteresis loops indicated ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization (Ms) ranging from 13-20 emu/g at 300 K.

Chemically synthesized nanoparticles of iron and iron-carbides.

In this paper, we report a one-pot chemical synthesis technique for the preparation of iron and iron-carbide nanoparticles. Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and magnetometry were used as the main tools to identify the different phases of Fe-C present. The influence of experimental parameters on the structural and compositional properties of nanoparticles was investigated in detail.

Chiral Magnetism and High-Temperature Skyrmions in B20-Ordered Co-Si.

Magnets with chiral crystal structures and helical spin structures have recently attracted much attention as potential spin-electronics materials, but their relatively low magnetic-ordering temperatures are a disadvantage. While cobalt has long been recognized as an element that promotes high-temperature magnetic ordering, most Co-rich alloys are achiral and exhibit collinear rather than helimagnetic order. Crystallographically, the B20-ordered compound CoSi is an exception due to its chiral structure, but it does not exhibit any kind of magnetic order.

Iron carbide nanoplatelets: colloidal synthesis and characterization.

Iron carbide nanoplatelets with an orthorhombic FeC structure were synthesized following a simple liquid chemical approach. The formation of the carbide phases was shown to depend on the presence of a long chain diol and the reaction temperature. Confirmation of the iron carbide phases and structural characterization was made by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Mössbauer spectroscopy.

Structure and Magnetism of CoGe Nanoparticles.

The structural and magnetic properties of CoGe nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by the cluster-beam deposition (CBD) technique have been investigated. As-made particles with an average size of 5.5 nm exhibit a mixture of hexagonal and orthorhombic crystal structures.

Structure and Magnetism of Mn₅Ge₃ Nanoparticles.

In this work, we investigated the magnetic and structural properties of isolated Mn₅Ge₃ nanoparticles prepared by the cluster-beam deposition technique. Particles with sizes between 7.2 and 12.

Effect of size confinement on skyrmionic properties of MnSi nanomagnets.

Bulk magnetic materials with the noncentrosymmetric cubic B20 structure are fascinating due to skyrmion spin structures associated with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions, but the size of skyrmions are generally larger than 50 nm. The control of such spin structures in the 10 nm size ranges is essential to explore them for spintronics, ultra-high-density magnetic recording, and other applications. In this study, we have fabricated MnSi nanoparticles with average sizes of 9.

Mn5Si3 Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Size-Induced Ferromagnetism.

Mn-based silicides are fascinating due to their exotic spin textures and unique crystal structures, but the low magnetic ordering temperatures and/or small magnetic moments of bulk alloys are major impediments to their use in practical applications. In sharp contrast to bulk Mn5Si3, which is paramagnetic at room temperature and exhibits low-temperature antiferromagnetic ordering, we show ferromagnetic ordering in Mn5Si3 nanoparticles with a high Curie temperature (Tc ≈ 590 K). The Mn5Si3 nanoparticles have an average size of 8.

Mechanism and controlled growth of shape and size variant core/shell FeO/Fe3O4 nanoparticles.

We report a novel synthesis approach for the growth of core/shell FeO/Fe3O4 nanoparticles with controlled shape and size. FeO particles were partially oxidized to form core/shell FeO/Fe3O4 structures, as evidenced from transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and magnetometry analysis. We find that the molar ratios and concentrations of surfactants are the key parameters in controlling the particle size.

Chemically synthesized hollow nanostructures in iron oxides.

In this work, we report a detailed study of the formation of hollow nanostructures in iron oxides. Core/shell Fe/Fe-oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by thermal decomposition of Fe(CO)(5) at high temperature. It was found that 8 nm is the critical size above which the particles have a core/shell morphology, whereas below this size the particles exhibit a hollow morphology.

Cluster synthesis and direct ordering of rare-earth transition-metal nanomagnets.

Rare-earth transition-metal (R-TM) alloys show superior permanent magnetic properties in the bulk, but the synthesis and application of R-TM nanoparticles remains a challenge due to the requirement of high-temperature annealing above about 800 °C for alloy formation and subsequent crystalline ordering. Here we report a single-step method to produce highly ordered R-TM nanoparticles such as YCo(5) and Y(2)Co(17), without high-temperature thermal annealing by employing a cluster-deposition system and investigate their structural and magnetic properties. The direct ordering is highly desirable to create and assemble R-TM nanoparticle building blocks for future permanent-magnet and other significant applications.

Novel Nd(2)Fe(14)B nanoflakes and nanoparticles for the development of high energy nanocomposite magnets.

High energy ball milling has been shown to be a promising method for large-scale fabrication of rare earth-transition metal nanoparticles. In this work, magnetically hard Nd-Fe-B nanopowders with a coercivity in the range of 1.2-4 kOe have been produced by surfactant-assisted ball milling of nanocrystalline precursor alloys.

Immobilization of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles on laponite discs - an easy way to biocompatible ferrofluids and ferrogels.

Magnetic nanocomposites containing iron oxide (maghemite) nanoparticles, well embedded in a synthetic clay matrix (laponite) were prepared by a new one step chemical route and characterized by TEM, XRD, magnetization measurements, Mössbauer spectroscopy, DLS, and MRI measurements. The synthetic procedure leads to non-stoichiometric γ-Fe(2)O(3) with a controllable content in the nanocomposite. Magnetic nanoparticles incorporated in the diamagnetic clay matrix exhibit a mean diameter of 13 nm, superparamagnetic behavior with a high saturation magnetization achievable at low applied magnetic fields.

Chemically synthesized FePt nanoparticles with controlled particle size, shape and composition.

Monodisperse Fe-Pt nanoparticles have been prepared by thermal decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl [Fe(CO)5] and reduction of platinum acetylacetonate [Pt(acac)2] with dibenzyl ether in the presence of oleic acid and oleyl amine. The particle composition was adjusted by changing the Fe(CO)5/Pt(acac)2 molar ratio while fixing the Pt(acac)2 amount. The size of FePt nanoparticles was tuned by controlling the injection temperature of the iron precursor.

Low-temperature synthesis of hexagonal (Wurtzite) ZnS nanocrystals.

We report a low-temperature (150 degrees C) and simple synthesis of quasi-monodispersed and uniform hexagonal (Wurtzite) ZnS nanocrystals in ethylene glycol medium. The samples structures were characterized with X-ray diffraction technique and transmission electron microscopy. It is believed that ethylene glycol medium plays a key role in forming hexagonal ZnS which is a stable phase at high temperatures.

Beating the superparamagnetic limit with exchange bias.

Interest in magnetic nanoparticles has increased in the past few years by virtue of their potential for applications in fields such as ultrahigh-density recording and medicine. Most applications rely on the magnetic order of the nanoparticles being stable with time. However, with decreasing particle size the magnetic anisotropy energy per particle responsible for holding the magnetic moment along certain directions becomes comparable to the thermal energy.