Nanocomposites of Iron−Cobalt Alloy and Magnetite: Controllable Solvothermal Synthesis and Their Magnetic Properties

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 113; no. 46; pp. 19875 - 19882
• Main Authors: Wang, Qin, Wu, Aibing, Yu, Lianxiang, Liu, Zhilong, Xu, Wei, Yang, Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 19.11.2009
• Subjects: C: Nanops and Nanostructures
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/jp909049b

Nanocomposites of Fe−Co alloy and cobalt-substituted magnetite magnetic materials Fe x Co1−x /Co y Re z Fe3−y−z O4 (Re = none, La, Nd, and Gd) have been obtained successfully employing a surfactant-assisted solvothermal method. The nanocomposite features hard and soft magnetic phases juxtaposed within one discrete, anisotropic structure. Sodium oleate molecules were found effective in preventing the oxidation of the Fe−Co alloy and aggregation of the magnetic microspheres. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the structure and the morphology of the products. The result of magnetic characterization reveals that the magnetic microspheres exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior and possess high saturation magnetization and low coercivity. It is expected that these magnetic microspheres with uniform size would have potential applications such as magnetic carriers for drug targeting because of their excellent soft-magnetic properties.