FePt clusters synthesized by thermal pyrolysis of Fe and Pt compounds in an organic solvent

A simple synthetic procedure involving the pyrolysis of Fe and Pt acetylacetonates mixed in trioctylamine results in the formation of alloy clusters with an average cluster around 4.2 nm and narrow size distribution. When the clusters are dispersed onto silicon wafers and heated under the protection of forming gas or nitrogen, the fcc structured clusters transform into hard magnetic FePt clusters with L10 chemical order. Coercivity values as high as 23 kOe are reached after rapid thermal annealing at 750 °C for 5 min