Structural and magnetic characterization of Fe nanoparticles synthesized by chemical vapor condensation process.

The structural and magnetic characteristics of iron nanoparticles synthesized by a chemical vapor condensation (CVC) process were investigated systematically by an x-ray diffraction method, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, M&oum;ssbauer spectroscopy, magnetometry and thermogravimetric analysis. Typical particle sizes were found to be in the range of 5-13 nm with uniform dispersion. The resulting microstructure of the nanoparticles correlated with parameters of the CVC process. In particular, a CVC technique was derived to fabricate Fe nanoparticles with different magnetic states, e.g., superparamagnetic, ferromagnetic, or a mixture of these two states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]