Chemical synthesis and characterization of manganese oxide coated Ni particles

Nanosized Ni particles with an average diameter of about 8 nm were prepared by reducing of NiCl 2 with sodium borohydride (NaBH 4 ) in aqueous solution. By moderate annealing in protective atmosphere, the composite grew up to be 15–20 nm particles. Both of the as-prepared and annealed Ni particles were coated by a layer of manganese oxide via decomposition reaction in aqueous KMnO 4 solution. Hysteresis loops of as-prepared samples show a large increase in the magnetization with decreasing temperature and an unsaturated component at high magnetic field. In contrast, the ferromagnetic characteristics of annealed one are much stronger with large magnetization and coercivity. The thermomagnetic curves verified the coexistence of ferromagnetic Ni and antiferromangetic Mn oxide phases. But there exists no exchange bias behavior in the samples, even though the interface structure between the ferromagnetic Ni core and the antiferromagnetic manganese oxides has been distinctly formed. The absence of exchange bias probably originates from the weak ferromagnetic characteristic of Ni cores.