FeCo magnetic nanoneedles obtained by Co-coating haematite

Uniform FeCo magnetic nanoneedles of similar to 50 nm in width and axial ratio similar to 5 have been obtained by Co-coating haematite and subsequent hydrogen reduction in two steps. By this method, FeCo needle-like nanoparticles were obtained with Co contents up to 10% evenly distributed inside the particles. Higher Co contents up to 30% were incorporated by coating the Co-doped magnetite nanoneedles. No segregation of a secondary phase was observed in any case and the morphology of the particles was preserved without adding any extra element. Structural changes during the reduction process have been followed by several techniques. Although protected by an oxide layer, the final metal nanoparticles behave as single crystals, but they are composed of sub-crystals with the same crystallographic orientation and a mean diameter that decreases as the Co content increases. We found the highest reported saturation magnetization values for samples of similar size (180 emu g(-1)). The evolution of the coercivity with the cobalt modification could arise from the changes of the microstructure and the contributions of shape and crystalline anisotropies. Time dependence magnetization measurements showed the thermal activation to be related to the presence of crystallographic sub-units within the nanoneedles.