FePt nanoparticles suspension was synthesized by reduction of platinum acetylacetonate and decomposition of iron pentacarbonyl in the presence of oleic acid and oleyl amine. FePt nanoparticles were coated on a substrate by convective assembly from the suspension. To prevent the coalescence during the annealing of FePt nanoparticles double convective coatings were tried. First convective coating was for silica particle assembly on a silicon substrate and second one was for FePt nanoparticles on the previously coated silica layers. It was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that FePt nanoparticles were dispersed on the silica particle surface. After annealing at 700˚C for 30 minutes under nitrogen atmosphere, FePt nanoparticles on silica particles were maintained in a dispersed state with slight increase of particle size. On the contrary, FePt nanoparticles that were directly coated on silicon substrate showed severe particle growth after annealing due to the close-packing of nanoparticles during assembly. The size variation during annealing was also verified by X-ray diffractometer (XRD). It was suggested that pre-coating, which offered solvent flux oppose to the capillary force between FePt nanoparticles, was an effective method to prevent coalescence of nano-sized particles under high temperature annealing.

FePt binary-alloy nanopowder has been successfully synthesized by chemical vapor condensation process with two metal organic precursors, i.e., iron pentacarbonyl and platinum acetylacetonate. Average particle size of the powder was less than 50 nm with very narrow size distribution, revealing high dispersion capability. Characteristics of the powder could be controlled by changing process parameters such as reaction temperature, chamber pressure, as well as gas flow rate. Magnetic properties of the synthesized FePt nanopowder were investigated and analyzed in terms of the powder characteristics.

FePt nanoparticles for high-density magnetic recording media were synthesized by the simultaneous chemical reduction of Fe(acac) and Pt(acac) with 1,2-hexadecanediol as the reducing reagent. TEM images showed that the shape of as-synthesized FePt nanoparticle was spherical and average particle size was 3 nm. Also, SAD pattern showed that crystal structure was disordered FCC (face centered cubic). These FCC structured nanoparticles were transformed FCT (face centered tetragonal) structure by annealing at 55 for 30 min in Ar atmosphere. XRD analysis revealed that as-synthesized FePt nanoparticles were transformed from disordered FCC to ordered FCT. Finally, the coercivity of 2 kOe for FePt nanoparticles with FCT structure was obtained by VSM measurement.