Fabrication of Magnetic Nanoparticles by Liquid Phase Pulsed Laser Ablation: Iron Oxide and Nickel Oxide

Abstract

Magnetic materials have been entailed in various ways in the development of modern civilization and technology. Particularly in the few last decades the integration of magnetic materials with nanotechnology provides abundant possible utilities in a variety of applications. Consequently the efficient synthesis techniques for magnetic nanomaterials have been being developed constantly. For instance, thermal decomposition, chemical precipitation, solvothermal treatment, sol-gel and microemulsion. Although these chemical approaches offer the advantage of particle size control, they have complex and multi-step procedure. Hence liquid phase pulsed laser ablation (LP-PLA) technique whose procedure is simple is a selective way for fabricating magnetic nanomaterials. In addition the processing parameters are easily controllable. This thesis presents the LP-PLA fabrication of metal oxide magnetic nanoparticles by varying laser parameter and types of liquid media. It is focused on iron oxide and nickel oxide, which are attractive magnetic materials, owing to their excellent properties. The third and fourth chapters deal with LP-PLA fabrication of iron oxide nanoparticles. The particle size control of the final product iron oxide nanoparticles by varying magnitude of laser power is proposed. In addition the control of processing parameters such as laser power magnitude and target type to synthesize single-phase iron oxide nanoparticles is demonstrated as well. The fifth chapter covers LP-PLA fabrication of nickel oxide nanoparticles in different liquid media. Effect of liquid environment on the particle size distribution and phase composition of the final product nanoparticles is addressed in this chapter. Finally all as-synthesized nanoparticles possess magnetic character, consequently are possibly used for a variety of applications related magnetism. In conclusion, the LP-PLA method shows a potential capability of producing the varieties of magnetic nanomaterials. Not only magnetic metal and metal oxide but also magnetic alloy and other novel multifunctional magnetic nanomaterials could be possibly produced by this technique.