The research activity aims at developing chemically ordered binary alloys nanoparticles with ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic behaviour and multifunctional nanocomposites combining magnetic metal particles and carbon-based materials (e.g. CNTs ad graphene) of interest for many applications including energy, biomedicine, catalysis, sensors and information storage, among others. A smart and versatile chemical synthesis strategy exploiting crystalline precursor salts has been developed to synthesize chemically order alloys under milder conditions with respect to conventional thermal processes. Innovative and patented methods are used to fill the CNTs and decorate the external surface of carbon-based materials.

Contact Person: A. Capobianchi|ISM - CNR|email: aldo.capobianchi@ism.cnr.it|Ph: +390690672554

CURRENT FOCUSES

Chemically ordered metal alloys

Principal Investigator: A. Capobianchi | email: aldo.capobianchi@ism.cnr.it Staff: G. Varvaro, S. Laureti

Chemically ordered magnetic binary alloys, consisting of an ordered arrangement of pure elements on alternating atomic planes, have attracted a special attention in the last few decades due to their peculiar physical properties and excellent chemical stability, which arise from the particular arrangement of the atoms that alternate in composition along the c-axis direction of the fct unit cell.

At the nM2-Lab, a promising chemical synthesis method, called Preordered Precursor Reduction strategy, exploiting layered crystal salt precursors consisting of alternating planes of pure atoms, which mimic the structure of the alloy, was developed to synthesize highly ordered nanoparticles while reducing the ordering kinetic energy and consequently the processing temperature and/or the reaction time. The strategy was already successfully applied to the synthesis of high-ordered MPt (M = Fe, Co, Ni) alloy nanoparticles under milder conditions than conventional thermal processes and other alloys are now under investigation including MnxFe1-xPt, FeNi and MnAl.




Preordered Precursor Reduction strategy

Multifunctional nanocomposites

Principal Investigator: A. Capobianchi | email: aldo.capobianchi@ism.cnr.it Staff: G. Varvaro

Nanocomposite materials consisting of two or more different phases have attracted a great deal of attention in the last years owing to the new physical properties and functionalities arising from the synergetic effect of the individual components.

Special attention is devoted at the nM2-Lab to the development of multifunctional nanocomposites combining the peculiar properties of carbon-based materials (e.g. multi-wall carbon nanotubes, reduce graphene oxides) and magnetic nanoparticles (metals, oxides) for application in many fields, including catalysis and energy.