Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
The Contribution of
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Fe Mössbauer
Spectrometry to Investigate Magnetic
Nanomaterials
Jean-Marc Greneche
Abstract Fe containing nanomaterials and nanoparticles are quite important
because their unusual physical properties make them excellent candidates for
different applications.
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Fe Mössbauer spectrometry appears as an excellent tool to
provide structural and magnetic data through the hyperfine parameters. After a
short definition of nanostructures and their main characteristics originated from
confinement effects, we established the relevant features to understand nanoscale
magnetism. Some examples have been thus selected to illustrate first how
Mössbauer spectrometry contributes to understand the chemical, structural and
magnetic nature of nanostructures and the role of surface and grain boundaries.
Then, they also demonstrate also how the fitting procedure remains a delicate task
to model the hyperfine structure and does require on the one hand large experi-
mental data basis obtained from different techniques including structural, mor-
phological and magnetic parameters and on the other hand materials with high
knowledge and control of synthesis conditions.
4.1 Introduction
Nanoscience and nanotechnology are concerned by the understanding of matter
and the conception of devices on an ultra-small scale, respectively. It is difficult to
establish the early stages as first proposed by Richard Feynman, but the growing
interest in nanosciences emerged during the 1980s with the invention of the
