ABSTRACT
Feroxyhite (δ-FeOOH) nanomaterials were successfully synthesized through the atmospheric AC microplasma method at room temperature from ferrous sulfate aqueous solutions. Various syntheses conditions, including electric voltage, electric field strength, ferrous concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, and reaction duration, were systematically investigated. The synthesized products were characterized through x-ray diffraction, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. The bandgap of the produced materials were strongly dependent of the ferrous concentration while the product ratio was dependent on all experimental conditions. The synthesis mechanism was thoroughly discussed. The synthesized nanomaterials were amorphous nanospheres, showing superparamagnetic properties at room temperature. The synthesized oxyhydroxide is a potential photovoltaic material besides its reported applications in photocatalysts and supercapacitors. The application of this synthesis technique could be extended to synthesize other oxy-hydroxide nanomaterials for renewable energy applications facilely, scalablely, cost-effectively, and environmentally.
ABSTRACT
AC electric fields were utilized in the growth of individual high-aspect ratio cobalt nanowires from simple salt solutions using the Directed Electrochemical Nanowire Assembly method. Nanowire diameters were tuned from the submicron scale to 40 nm by adjusting the AC voltage frequency and the growth solution concentration. The structural properties of the nanowires, including shape and crystallinity, were identified using electron microscopy. Hysteresis loops obtained along different directions of an individual nanowire using vibrating sample magnetometry showed that the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy has the same order of magnitude as the shape anisotropy energy. Additionally, the saturation magnetization of an individual cobalt nanowire was estimated to be close to the bulk single crystal value. A small cobalt nanowire segment was grown from a conductive atomic force microscope cantilever tip that was utilized in magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging. The fabricated MFM tip provided moderate quality magnetic images of an iron-cobalt thin-film sample.
ABSTRACT
A remarkable 111% increase in magnetostriction (λ) and 435% increase in strain sensitivity (dλ/dH) (compared to normally compacted (NC) unsubstituted CoFe2O4 (CFO)) of Zr+4 doped CFO sample, Co1.2Zr0.2Fe1.6O4, prepared by magnetic field assisted compaction, have been reported in this study. Magnetic field assisted compaction (MC) has been employed to process Zr-doped cobalt ferrites, Co1+xZrxFe2-2xO4 (0 ≤ × ≤ 0.4), to further improve the magnetoelastic properties. Saturation magnetization (M S ) and coercivity (H C ) increase from ~426 kA/m and ~4.4 kA/m respectively, for x = 0, to ~552 kA/m and ~7.11 kA/m respectively for x = 0.2. Dramatic increase in λ was observed for MC samples (~ -360 ppm and ~-380 ppm for x = 0 and x = 0.2 respectively) compared to the NC samples (~-181 ppm and ~-185 ppm for x = 0 and x = 0.2 respectively). A remarkable quadruple increase in dλ/dH was observed in Zr-doped (x = 0.2) cobalt-ferrite (~4.3 × 10-9 A-1m) compared to that of unsubstituted cobalt-ferrite (~1.24 × 10-9 A-1m), while a fivefold increase in dλ/dH was observed for magnetically compacted (MC) Zr doped cobalt ferrite (x = 0.2) (~4.3 × 10-9 A-1m) compared to normal compacted (NC) unsubstituted cobalt ferrite (~0.8 × 10-9 A-1m).
ABSTRACT
Fe68.8Pd31.2 exhibits an anomalously large magnetostriction of ~400 ppm at room temperature as well as linear, isotropic, and hysteresis free magnetization behavior. This near perfectly reversible magnetic response is attributable to the presence of a large number of premartensitic magnetoelastic twin clusters present in the system made possible through the elastic softening that occurs near a martensitic transformation temperature of 252 K. It is proposed that the twin clusters in the material reduce both internal elastic and magnetic energy, causing the elastic and magnetic behavior of the material to be intimately linked. In such a framework, the anisotropy energy becomes extremely low causing the material to bear no crystalline dependence on magnetization, and application of a magnetic field causes simultaneous magnetic and twin domain movement which relaxes the system.
ABSTRACT
Gallium nitride (GaN) is an III-V semiconductor with a direct band-gap of 3 . 4 e V . GaN has important potentials in white light-emitting diodes, blue lasers, and field effect transistors because of its super thermal stability and excellent optical properties, playing main roles in future lighting to reduce energy cost and sensors to resist radiations. GaN nanomaterials inherit bulk properties of the compound while possess novel photoelectric properties of nanomaterials. The review focuses on self-assemblies of GaN nanoparticles without templates, growth mechanisms of self-assemblies, and potential applications of the assembled nanostructures on renewable energy.
