Preparation and magnetic properties of nickel nanorods by thermal decomposition reducing methods

The single-crystalline nickel nanorods with narrow size distribution and better magnetic properties were synthesized by thermal decomposition of nickel hydroxide nanorods precursor powders, which were produced by soft template method using nickel oxalic acid as raw material. The influences of hydrothermal reaction temperature and time on morphology of the products were investigated. The structure, morphology and magnetic properties of the products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric differential scanning calorimetry (TGA-DSC) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The as-prepared nickel nanorods are uniform with a diameter of 10–15 nm and length 70–120 nm. The results of magnetic measurements show that the specific saturation magnetization(σs) and coercivity values(Hc) of the nickel nanorods are 50.649 A·m2/kg and 190.0×(103/4 π)A/m, respectively. Finally, a possible mechanism for the formation of nickel nanorods was discussed briefly.