A novel method for fabricating Fe nanobelts

• Ultra-long iron nanobelts were synthesized by a novel non-chemical reduction method.
• The Fe nanobelts with high remanence, relatively high coercivity and shape anisotropy are very promising applied as radar absorbing materials.
• Our study may provide a new method for preparing 1D nanostructure materials.

Free-standing, ultralong (up to 1 mm) Fe nanobelts were fabricated by a novel method. This method is based on the fact that the solubility of iron in copper is very low. The Fe nanobelts are formed in copper matrix by forging and wire drawing, followed by a phase separation through selective etching of the copper matrix to release Fe nanobelts from the matrix. The Fe nanobelts have an average thickness of 30–50 nm, a width of 200–2000 nm, exhibiting width-to-thickness ratio of 4–40. The Fe nanobelts have high remanence, relatively high coercivity and shape anisotropy.