One-Step Solution Combustion Synthesis of Cobalt Nanopowder in Air Atmosphere: The Fuel Effect

In this paper, we report a new modified solution combustion synthesis technique for one-step production of metallic Co nanoparticles. The main unique feature of our approach is the use of microwave-assisted foam preparation. Also, the effect of different types of fuels (urea, citric acid, glycine, and hexamethylenetetramine) on the combustion process and characteristics of resultant solid products were investigated. It was shown that the combination of microwave-assisted foam and hexamethylenetetramine as a fuel allows us to produce metallic Co nanoparticles with the broad size distribution (∼5–40 nm), high coercivity (370 Oe), and high value of saturation magnetization (137 emu/g) by the one-step solution combustion synthesis under normal air atmosphere without any post reduction.