Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Nonclassical Crystallization Of Amorphous Iron Nanoparticles By Radio Frequency Methods, Kyler J. Carroll, J. A. Pitts, Kai Zhang, A. K. Pradhan, E. E. Carpenter

Chemistry Publications

Amorphousironnanoparticles were synthesized using an aqueous reduction in iron(II) sulfate with sodium borohydride and sodium citrate. Various radio frequency (rf) exposure times were investigated in order to determine trends in nonclassical crystallization. RF times from 15 to 300 s revealed an increase in crystallite size from 5 to 60 nm, as determined by powde rx-ray diffraction. Also, solvent optimization revealed that ethanol produced the largest trends for increasing crystallite size without total oxidation of the samples. Magnetic characterization by room temperature vibrating sample magnetometry and high resolution transmission microscopy was performed to verify magnetic properties and particle morphology.