Premium
Diffraction anomalous fine structure study of iron/iron oxide nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Meneghini Carlo,
Boscherini Federico,
Pasquini Luca,
Renevier Hubert
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s002188980902353x
Subject(s) - nanocrystalline material , diffraction , materials science , nanometre , iron oxide , powder diffraction , crystallography , nanoparticle , oxide , shell (structure) , octahedron , chemical physics , crystal structure , nanotechnology , chemistry , optics , metallurgy , physics , composite material
Diffraction anomalous fine structure is a recently developed technique which can provide a measurement of the local structure of a given element in a particular phase or crystallographic site. Most previous investigations have applied the technique to bulk solids, thin films, and nano‐dots or wires on crystalline substrates. In this paper, the technique is applied to highly disordered nanometre‐sized Fe/Fe oxide core–shell nanocrystalline powders, the diffraction patterns of which exhibit weak and greatly broadened diffraction peaks. Focusing on the oxide shell diffraction peaks, a qualitative analysis of the near‐edge spectral region and a quantitative analysis of the extended energy region are provided; in particular, good quality fittings of the extended range spectra are obtained. The local structure is selectively probed around the tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the oxide shell, finding the presence of a high degree of structural disorder. This study demonstrates that diffraction anomalous fine structure can now be fruitfully applied to nanocrystalline powders.