Symbiotic, low-temperature, and scalable synthesis of bi-magnetic complex oxide nanocomposites
F. Sayed, Ganesh Kotnana, Giuseppe Muscas, Federico Locardi, Antonio Comite, Gaspare Varvaro, Davide Peddis, G. Barucca, R. Mathieu, Tapati Sarkar
Abstract
), and completely eliminates the need for conventional high-temperature annealing. A symbiotic effect is observed, as the second phase reduces grain growth of the first phase, thus yielding samples with lower particle sizes. Through thermogravimetric, structural, and morphological studies, we have confirmed the reaction mechanism. The magnetic properties of the bi-magnetic nanocomposites are studied, and reveal a distinct effect of the synthesis conditions on the coercivity of the particles. Our work presents a basic concept of significantly reducing the synthesis temperature of bi-phasic nanocomposites (and thus also the synthesis cost) by using one phase as nucleation sites for the second one, as well as using the heat of formation of one phase to crystallize the other.