Magnetic behavior of iron and iron-oxide nanoparticle/polymer composites

An inert gas condensation technique was used to prepare nanometer-sized particles of metallic iron and iron oxide. The particles were passivated by the controlled oxidation of the particle surface leading to an Fe-oxide shell-Fe core structure. Nanoparticle-polymer composites were obtained by spin casting mixtures of nanoparticles and polymethylmethacrylate films. The magnetic properties of the nanoparticles compressed into pellets and dispersed in the composites were both studied. The particles were observed to exhibit increased coercivity and exchange bias. The exchange bias was observed to increase with oxide shell thickness. The magnetism in the nanoparticle composites was studied as a function of nanoparticle loading. It was observed that when the particles were dispersed into the nanocomposite the coercivity was increased, suggesting a heightened anisotropy barrier. Similarly, the magnetic relaxation results indicate that the composites exhibit significantly reduced relaxations through the entire temperature range, as compared to the compressed pellet. This observation supports the possibility of heightened anisotropy barriers due to reduced dipolar interactions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.