Rapid growth of Fe3O4 nanowires with oxide assisted vapor–solid process

Oxide assisted vapor–solid (VS) process has been used for rapid crystal growth of Fe3O4 nanowires (NWs) on Fe:Ni (1:1) alloy substrate. Oxide layers have been created initially on the substrate by heating it inside the quartz tube of a single tube furnace at 600 °C in air. On rising the temperature of the chamber to 700 °C in vacuum and flowing argon (Ar) at a flux 10 sccm for 20 min NWs of lengths up to 10 μm and average width 120 nm can be grown on the oxidized substrate. Capillarity model and resident time theorem have been combined to analyze the nanowire growth process. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) studies show that the product formed are Fe3O4 NWs which are magnetic materials.