Issue 14, 2019

Anisotropic manganese antimonide nanoparticle formation by solution–solid–solid growth mechanism: consequence of sodium borohydride addition towards reduced surface oxidation and enhanced magnetic moment

Abstract

A new approach to the solution-phase synthesis of manganese antimonide nanoparticles was developed to reduce competitive oxide formation by exploitation of sodium borohydride (NaBH4) (0.53–2.64 mmol) as a sacrificial reductant. However, in the presence of near-stoichiometric precursor amounts of manganese carbonyl and triphenyl antimony, the introduction of NaBH4 results in a different growth mechanism, Solution–Solid–Solid (SSS), leading to tadpole-shaped manganese antimonide nanoparticles with antimony-rich heads and stoichiometric manganese antimonide tails. We hypothesize that a solid antimony-rich manganese antimonide cluster acts as an initiator to tail growth in solution. Notably, the length of the tail correlated with the amount of NaBH4 used. Interestingly, these anisotropic particles can be transformed progressively into spherical-shaped nanoparticles upon the addition of excess manganese carbonyl. The anisotropic manganese antimonide particles possess saturation magnetizations ca. twenty times higher than that reported for MnSb nanoparticles prepared without NaBH4, attributed to limitation of oxidation.

Graphical abstract: Anisotropic manganese antimonide nanoparticle formation by solution–solid–solid growth mechanism: consequence of sodium borohydride addition towards reduced surface oxidation and enhanced magnetic moment

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Nov 2018
Accepted
14 Mac 2019
First published
14 Mac 2019

Nanoscale, 2019,11, 6886-6896

Author version available

Anisotropic manganese antimonide nanoparticle formation by solution–solid–solid growth mechanism: consequence of sodium borohydride addition towards reduced surface oxidation and enhanced magnetic moment

M. A. Hettiarachchi, E. Abdelhamid, B. Nadgorny and S. L. Brock, Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 6886 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR09142K

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