Synthesis of high magnetization Fe and FeCo nanoparticles by high temperature chemical reduction

•A high temperature synthetic route for Fe and FeCo nanoparticles is developed.•These 5–10 nm nanoparticles exhibit high quality magnetic properties.•The saturation magnetization values were dependent on the reduction temperature.•This chemical reduction route has been demonstrated to be scalable in the gram scale.

Fe and FeCo ferromagnetic nanoparticles in the 5–10 nm size regimes featuring high magnetization were synthesized using a modified chemical reduction method. The structure and morphology of these nanoparticles were confirmed by XRD and TEM analysis. These small, monodisperse and phase pure nanoparticles exhibited magnetic saturation of 210 emu/g (Fe) and 220 emu/g (Fe+Co) for Fe and FeCo nanoparticles respectively. The magnetization was found to be dependent on the temperature at which the reducing agent was introduced.