Publications by authors named "Petrecca M"

The crystal site occupancy of different divalent ions and the induction of lattice defects represent an additional tool for modifying the intrinsic magnetic properties of spinel ferrites nanoparticles. Here, the relevance of the lattice defects is demonstrated in the appearance of exchange-bias and in the improvement of the magnetic properties of doped ferrites of 20 nm, obtained from the mild oxidation of core@shell (wüstite@ferrite) nanoparticles. Three types of nanoparticles (Fe0 O@Fe O , Co Fe O@Co Fe O and Ni Co Fe O@Ni Co Fe O ) are oxidized.

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Here, we synthesize a Au@FeO core@shell system with a highly uniform unprecedented star-like shell morphology with combined plasmonic and magnetic properties. An advanced electron microscopy characterization allows assessing the multifaceted nature of the Au core and its role in the growth of the peculiar epitaxial star-like shell with excellent crystallinity and homogeneity. Magnetometry and magneto-optical spectroscopy revealed a pure magnetite shell, with a superior saturation magnetization compared to similar Au@FeO heterostructures reported in the literature, which is ascribed to the star-like morphology, as well as to the large thickness of the shell.

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Nanometric core@shell wüstite@ferrite (Fe O@Fe O ) has been extensively studied because of the emergence of exchange bias phenomena. Since their actual implementation in modern technologies is hampered by the low temperature at which bias is operating, the critical issue to be solved is to obtain exchange-coupled antiferromagnetic@ferrimagnetic nanoparticles (NPs) with ordering temperature close to 300 K by replacing the divalent iron with other transition-metal ions. Here, the effect of the combined substitution of Fe  with Co  and Ni  on the crystal structure and magnetic properties is studied.

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Temperature treatment of magnetic Mn-Zn ferrites with the composition MnZnFeO up to 1100 °C results in a tremendous enhancement of the saturation magnetization by more than 60%. Employing a robust combined Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray and neutron diffraction (PXRD and NPD) data, it is revealed how a reordering of the cations takes place during the annealing step, the extent of which depends on the annealing temperature. While Zn(II) exclusively occupies tetrahedral sites throughout the whole temperature range, as the annealing temperature increases up to 700 °C, the Mn(II) cation distribution shifts from 80(7)% of the total Mn content occupying the octahedral sites (partly inverse spinel) to Mn only being present on the tetrahedral sites (normal spinel).

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The development of reproducible protocols to synthesize hard/soft nano-heterostructures (NHSs) with tailored magnetic properties is a crucial step to define their potential application in a variety of technological areas. Thermal decomposition has proved to be an effective tool to prepare such systems, but it has been scarcely used so far for the synthesis of Co-based metal/ferrite NHSs, despite their intriguing physical properties. We found a new approach to prepare this kind of nanomaterial based on a simple one-pot thermal decomposition reaction of metal-oleate precursors in the high boiling solvent docosane.

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The synthesis of highly compacted, nanostructured soft magnets is highly desirable due to their promising properties for the development of electronic devices working at frequency higher than 2 MHz. In this work we investigated the potentiality of High Pressure Field Assisted Sintering Technique (HP-FAST). To this aim, we first synthesized soft Mn-Zn ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) through an easy-scalable, eco-friendly strategy based on aqueous co-precipitation in basic media, starting from transition metal chlorides.

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