Chemically prepared magnetic nanoparticles

TLDR

Nanotechnology drives the creation of nanoscale components, and magnetic nanoparticles—due to their sub‑100‑nm size—offer unique magnetic properties suitable for miniaturized devices. This review focuses on recent chemical synthesis advances and characterization of magnetic nanoparticles. The review highlights solution‑based synthesis methods—such as precipitation, borohydride reduction, hydrothermal, reverse micelles, polyol, sol–gel, thermolysis, photolysis, sonolysis, multisynthesis, and electrochemical techniques—and discusses approaches to analyze their structural, morphological, and magnetic characteristics.

Abstract

Nanotechnology has spurred efforts to design and produce nanoscale components for incorporation into devices. Magnetic nanoparticles are an important class of functional materials, possessing unique magnetic properties due to their reduced size (below 100 nm) with potential for use in devices with reduced dimensions. Recent advances in processing by chemical synthesis and the characterisation of magnetic nanoparticles are the focus of this review. Emphasis has been placed on the various solution chemistry techniques used to synthesise particles, including: precipitation, borohydride reduction, hydrothermal, reverse micelles, polyol, sol–gel, thermolysis, photolysis, sonolysis, multisynthesis processing and electrochemical techniques. The challenges and methods for examining the structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of these materials are described.