The effects of the concentration of individual reactants on Fe–Ni–P–B nanoparticles fabricated by chemical reduction

The effects of concentrations or ratio of various reactants on the composition, particle size, morphology and crystalline structure of Fe–Ni–P–B nanoparticles fabricated by chemical reduction (CR) were systematically studied. The experimental results indicate that varying the ratio of Ni2+/(Ni2++Fe2+) can be used to control the ratio of Ni/(Ni+Fe) in the final products. It is also shown that the concentration of NaH2PO2 needs to be carefully controlled as any change will result in a large variation of composition in the final products. The reproducibility of CR for Fe–Ni–P–B system was also studied. It seems, from analyzing the experimental data, that two processes, namely chemical and electrochemical, were involved during the preparation.