Sol-gel synthesis of Fe-Co nanoparticles and magnetization study

We report the synthesis of carbon encapsulated Fe-Co nanoparticles using conventional sol-gel route and its magnetization studies. The x-ray diffraction indicates the formation of the single phase body centered cubic alloy Fe-Co phase with cell parameter of 2.857 Å. Nanoparticles are highly crystalline and exhibit low index faceting as determined from high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) investigation. The observed orthogonal lattice planes with lattice distance of 2.86 Å are attributed to (100) and (010). HRTEM image confirms the cube like Fe-Co nanoparticles with core-shell structure of carbon encapsulation, composed of carbon and graphite materials. The magnetometry results of the carbon encapsulated alloy Fe-Co nanoparticles with core-shell structure designate as a ferromagnetically ordered soft magnet with coercive field of 890 Oe (at 5 K). The coercive field and magnetization value depend on the size of nanoparticles as well as the diamagnetic contribution of carbon encapsulation.