Synthesis of Highly Magnetic FeCo Nanoparticles Through a One Pot Polyol Process Using All Metal Chlorides Precursors with Precise Composition Tunability

Abstract

In this study, we report an environment friendly and surfactant free modified polyol process involving all of metal precursors are metal chlorides to synthesize high magnetization FeCo nanoparticles. Co chloride instead of Co acetate has been used to synthesize small size (<100 nm) FeCo nanoparticles for enhancing the reduction process through the hydroxide ion concentration and reaction temperature optimization. The obtained highest magnetization 232 emu/g was closed to the bulk value (240 emu/g) was observed with an atomic composition of Fe60Co40. We have observed that the FeCo binary composition of the nanoparticles can be easily controlled by altering the concentration of the Fe and Co chloride precursors. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms that single phase body-centered-cubic structured FeCo for all compositions. Uniform spherical FeCo nanoparticles can be synthesized with a high degree of morphological control by introducing ultrasound irradiation.