Nanoglasses are solids consisting of nanometer-sized glassy regions connected by interfaces having a reduced density. We studied the structure of Sc(75)Fe(25) nanoglasses by electron microscopy, positron annihilation spectroscopy, and small-/wide-angle X-ray scattering. The positron annihilation spectroscopy measurements showed that the as-prepared nanoglasses consisted of 65 vol% glassy and 35 vol% interfacial regions. By applying temperature annealing to the nanoglasses and measuring in situ small-angle X-ray scattering, we observed that the width of the interfacial regions increased exponentially as a function of the annealing temperature. A quantitative fit to the small-angle X-ray scattering data using a Debye-Bueche random phase model gave a correlation length that is related to the sizes of the interfacial regions in the nanoglass. The correlation length was found to increase exponentially from 1.3 to 1.7 nm when the sample temperature was increased from 25 to 230 °C. Using simple approximations, we correlate this to an increase in the width of interfacial regions from 0.8 to 1.2 nm, while the volume fraction of interfacial regions increased from 31 to 44%. Using micro-compression measurements, we investigated the deformation behavior of ribbon glass and the corresponding nanoglass. While the nanoglass exhibited a remarkable plasticity even in the annealed state owing to the glass-glass interfaces, the corresponding ribbon glass was brittle. As this difference seems not limited to Sc(75)Fe(25) glasses, the reported result suggest that nanoglasses open the way to glasses with high ductility resulting from the nanometer sized microstructure.

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Registered Charity Number 207890 Cyclic stability of an iron-based conversion material was greatly improved through a carbon-Fe-LiF nanocomposite cathode material obtained by pyrolysis of a ferrocene/lithium fluoride mixture. The product consists of Fe nanoparticles which are intimately embedded in porous and multiwalled nanocarbon structures.

The possibility to synthesize bulk amorphous materials with an internal nanostructure—nanoglasses—leads to yet another class of materials potentially with modified properties. Here, evidence is presented that the nanoglass model system Fe90Sc10 exhibits enhanced magnetic properties: it is shown that this nanoglass (prepared by cold compaction of glassy nanospheres) is a ferromagnet at ambient temperature although the isolated nanospheres are paramagnetic. Structural studies reveal that it consists of glassy nanospheres connected by regions with reduced atomic density. The ferromagnetism is explained by the presence of such regions of low atomic density.

A one-step synthesis of nanostructured bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) via mechanochemical processing of a α-Fe2O3/Bi2O3 mixture at room temperature is reported. The mechanically induced phase evolution of the mixture is followed by XRD and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. It is shown that the mechanosynthesis of the rhombohedrally distorted perovskite BiFeO3 phase is completed after 12 h. Compared to the traditional synthesis route, the mechanochemical process used here represents a one-step, high-yield, low-temperature, and low-cost procedure for the synthesis of BiFeO3. High-resolution TEM and XRD studies reveal a nonuniform structure of mechanosynthesized BiFeO3 nanoparticles consisting of a crystalline core surrounded by an amorphous surface shell. The latter is found to exhibit an extraordinarily high metastability causing a rapid crystallization of nanoparticles under irradiation with electrons. In situ high-resolution TEM observations of the crystallization clearly show that the heterogeneous processes of nucleation and growth of bismuth iron oxide crystallites are spatially confined to the amorphous surface regions. This fact provides access to the elucidation of the mechanism of mechanosynthesis. It is demonstrated that the mechanosynthesized ferrite nanoparticles exhibit a partial superparamagnetism at room temperature. Quantitative information on the short-range structure and hyperfine interactions, provided by the nuclear spectroscopic technique, is complemented by an investigation of the magnetic behavior of nanostructured BiFeO3 on a macroscopic scale by means of SQUID technique. As a consequence of canted spins in the surface shell of nanoparticles, the mechanosynthesized BiFeO3 exhibits an enhanced magnetization, an enhanced coercivity, and a shifted hysteresis loop.