Preparation and magnetic properties of nickel nanowires by magnetic field-induction

Nickel nanowires were successfully prepared on a large scale at room temperature through a simple and low cost liquid reduction method with the application of an external magnetic field of 0.3 T. The effect of uniform magnetic field on the morphology and properties of magnetic nickel was studied. The morphology, crystal structure, and static magnetic properties were measured by SEM, XRD, VSM, respectively. The results show that the sizes of the nickel nanowires as-prepared are about 100 nm in diameter, and several microns in length were obtained and they are mainly composed by fcc structure. The saturation magnetization of the nickel nanowires is 36 emu/g, less than that of bulk nickel crystal, and the coercivity of them is 186 emu/g, larger than that of bulk crystal with the mole ratio of sodium borohydride to nickel sulfate is 1:1000. This kind of nanowires array has potential applications with the special one-dimensional structures.