•Sarbari Bhattacharya¹, M. Winterer¹, B. Stahl^1,2, T. Enz¹, M. Ghafari¹ und H. Hahn^1
1Fachbereich Material- und Geowissenschaften, Petersenstr. 23, TU Darmstadt, 64287 Darmstadt
²Institiut für Nanotechnologie, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe

We have synthesized Fe nanoparticles surrounded by a C matrix using Chemical Vapour Synthesis of Iron (III) Acetylacetonate. We find that the material is remarkably stable. We attribute this stability to the presence of the C matrix. We have attempted to structurally and magnetically characterize this material using methods of X-Ray diffraction, HRTEM, EXAFS studies, Mössbauer Spectroscopy and SQUID magnetometry. Analysis of the X-Ray diffractogram suggests that most of the iron fraction is present as iron nanoparticles with grain sizes of the order of less than 1nm for which no crystalline structure is evident. The rest of the material is for most part amorphous carbon with small fractions of graphite and fcc and bcc iron with grain sizes of the order of 11nm. RMC simulations of the EXAFS data are being carried out in order to structurally model the majority fraction Fe nanoparticles. The results of the analysis of the X-Ray diffraction data are in agreement with those of Mössbauer Spectroscopy. We have so far no evidence for the presence of iron oxides or carbides.