Nanoparticle ferrite multilayers prepared by new self-assembling sequential adsorption method

The nanoparticle magnetite of which diameter was about 3 nm was synthesized in a homogeneous aqueous solution without a template. The synthesized magnetite nanoparticle was easily oxidized to maghemite in an ambient condition. The magnetic properties of the ferrite nanoparticle show superparamagnetism at room temperature and its blocking temperature is around 93 K. Modifying the sequential adsorption method of metal bisphosphonate, we have prepared a multilayer thin film of the ferrite nanoparticle on planar substrates such as glass, quartz and Si wafer. In this multilayer the ferrite nanoparticle layer and an alkylbisphosphonate layer are alternately placed on the substrates by simple immersion in the solutions of the ferrite nanoparticle and 1, 10-decanediylbis (phosphonic acid) (DBPA), alternately. This is the first example, as far as we know, of nanoparticle/alkyl-bisphosphonate multilayer which is an analogy of metal bisphosphonate multilayer. UVvisible absorption and infrared reflection-absorption studies show that the growth of each layer is very systematic and the film is considerably optically transparent to visible light of 400-700 nm. Atomic force microscopic images of the film show that the surface morphology of the film follows that of the substrate in µm-scale image and the nanoparticle-terminated surface is differentiated from the DBPA-terminated one in nm-scale image. The magnetic properties of this ferrite/DBPA thin film are almost the same as those of the ferrite nanoparticle powder only.