Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Preparation and detailed structural characterization of iron-nickel wire-like nanochains with Fe0.75Ni0.25, Fe0.50Ni0.50, and Fe0.25Ni0.75 compositions are reported. The investigated nanomaterials were produced in the novel template-free magnetic-field-induced reduction reaction with NaBH4 as a reducing agent. It is demonstrated that this method leads to the formation of Fe-Ni nanochains composed of spherical nanoparticles with an average diameter of 50-70 nm and with a very high degree of atomic disorder manifested as the lack of clearly developed bcc and fcc phases, which are usually observed for nano- and polycrystalline Fe-Ni species. The recorded wide-angle X-ray scattering data for the obtained Fe-Ni nanochains exhibit a strong resemblance to those obtained for bulk metallic glasses. The atomic scale structure of the investigated nanochains has been studied using pair distribution function analysis of the recorded total scattering data. The best fits to the experimental pair distribution functions have been achieved assuming two-phase models of hcp and bcc networks with the size of coherently scattering regions of about 2.5 nm in diameter, for each Fe-Ni composition. Transmission electron microscopy images indicate that the glass-like bimetallic alloy cores are covered by amorphous oxide/hydroxide shells with thickness ranging from 2 to 5 nm. Moreover, electron energy loss spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy results confirm the core-shell structure of the Fe-Ni nanochains and a complex character of shell layer which consists of several iron- and nickel-containing phases.

So far, it has been proven that the magnetic-field-induced (MFI) synthesis is a process which mainly leads to the formation of magnetic metallic one-dimensional nanostructures. Taking advantage of this method, the new procedures which allow manufacture of the magnetic bimetallic iron–cobalt wire-like nanochains with Fe0.75 Co0.25, Fe0.50 Co0.50, and Fe0.25 Co0.75 compositions are demonstrated in this work. They were produced through a simple one-step magnetic-field-induced (MFI) chemical co-reduction of three different mixtures containing a proper amount of Fe2+ and Co2+ ions with aqueous sodium borohydride solution as the reducing agent. The synthesis process was carried out at room temperature without the use of templates, surfactants, complexing agents, and organic solvents. The morphological and structural studies indicated that all as-prepared materials were amorphous, and they were composed of nanoparticles aligned in almost straight chains. Moreover, they revealed the core–shell structures with bimetallic alloy cores containing desired iron-to-cobalt ratios and very thin oxide shells. Furthermore, the obtained nanostructures behaved as ferromagnetic materials. Their magnetic properties were correlated with their structural properties and chemical compositions. It was observed that their saturation magnetization decreased significantly with increasing content of cobalt in the chains, whereas the variation of their coercivity was less pronounced.

magnetic-field-induced process, magnetic material, nanoalloy, wire-like nanostructure