Inorganic Chemistry Seminar

"Creating Highly Sought Magnetic Nanoparticles" Chins Chinnasamy, Northeastern University Nanostructures made of metals and its oxides have received much attention in recent years because of their uses in many areas, including photonics, electronics, biomedicine, magnetic recording media, magnetic refrigeration systems, catalysis, permanent magnets and energy technology. In order to understand their unique properties and further promote their utility, one must fully understand the correlation between chemistry, structure, particle size, shape and processing. Chemical methods have been widely used to produce nanoscale materials due to their straightforward nature with controlled size, shape, composition and crystallinity, which allows one to investigate the relationships between size/structure and physical/chemical properties. Here, we will examine the synthesis strategies for the size and structure controlled metal (Co and Ni), metal alloy nanoparticles (FePt, CoPt, and FeCo) by deciphering the reaction kinetics using the modified polyol process. The shape of the particles could also be controlled since shape can influence the crystal orientation and specifically net magnetic anisotropy. We extended this process to study the effects on the preparation of rare earth (RE) based-Co nanoparticles that shows moderate magnetization and coercivity at room temperature. The results will be discussed in detail.
Location: GeoChem Bldg., 351