Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy on Aggregated Fe-Cu-B Nanosized Particles

Abstract

Nanostructured materials have attracted great attention because their physical and chemical properties may differ significantly from those of the bulk material. In the equilibrium state, the solid solubility between Fe and Cu is negligibly small. However by using methods as vapor quenching, ball milling or chemical reduction, a Fe-Cu solid solution can be formed. In the present work, colloidal solutions incorporating mixtures of iron (II) and copper (II) functionalized surfactants are used to obtain FexCu 1-x(B) alloys and composite. Different ranges of composition (x=0.3 and x=0.7) can be produced by varying the relative concentration of the surfactants.The samples are characterized by different techniques, some of them such as X-ray diffraction, 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, and magnetization measurements, provide an information averaged over the whole specimen. Transmission Electron Microscopy, together with electron diffraction and EDS analysis, constitutes a first step towards submicrometer analysis of the produced material available as aggregates of nanosized particles deposited on holey carbon films.