Influence of Nanoparticle Size on Strain at the Core-Shell Interface

This work deals with the strain at the core-shell interface of Fe nanoparticles. Series of Fe nanoparticles with various mean diameters were prepared by precipitation in solid state in binary Cu-Fe alloy. Further, nanoparticles were isolated by dissolution of Cu matrix. High-energy X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to probe structure of nanoparticles. XRD measurements suggest presence of the core-shell structure, where core and shell of the nanoparticles are formed of α-Fe and CuFe$_{2}$O$_{4}$ phase, respectively. Strains in core and shell were estimated as a function of nanoparticles size by Williamson-Hall method