Magnetic and high resolution TEM studies of nanographite derived from nanodiamond

The time evolution of graphitization was analyzed based on the structural and magnetic properties of nanodiamond samples annealed at 1600 °C for various time intervals. High resolution TEM and XRD show that the nanodiamond particles are converted to spherical onions for short annealing time intervals, and then they are completely transformed to polyhedral nanographite through the annealing for 120 min. The in-plane orbital susceptibility χorb (300 K) analyzed on the basis of Kotosonov’s equation remains fairly constant in the range −5.5 × 10−6 to −5.9 × 10−6 emu/g, suggesting that the coherent scattering region (CSR) and the Fermi energy are independent of the annealing times. It also indicates the presence of serious defects affecting the electronic structure of nanographite. As the annealing time increases from 2 to 120 min, the Pauli paramagnetic susceptibility decreases. The broad ESR signal is associated with the spins localized on the edge states of the π-electron graphite network. The ESR linewidth becomes nine times less as the heat-treatment time rises from 2 to 120 min. The relatively large linewidth is associated with the scattering of π-electrons by the edge phonon modes and magnetic interaction between the edge-localized spins. During continuous annealing the nanoparticle structure changes from more defective to less defective and the number of edge-localized spins in a particle drops from ca. 2 to ca. 1 despite the CSR size and the Fermi energy remain practically the same.