Controlled synthesis and magnetic properties of iron–cobalt–phosphide nanorods

A simple one-step solution-phase synthesis of iron-cobalt-phosphide ((Fe1-xCox)2P) nanorods (NRs) is reported in this paper. Through the control of the amount of Co in the samples, the crystal structure of (Fe1-xCox)2P NRs changes from a pure Fe-rich hexagonal Fe2P type structure to a mixture of Fe-rich hexagonal Fe2P and Co-rich orthorhombic Co2P type structures. These samples show superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature and ferromagnetic properties at 10 K. When the Co composition is 0.09, the (Fe0.91Co0.09)2P sample has the highest coercivity around 5.74 kOe at 10 K. The current route provides a new and general chemical method for tunable preparation of (Fe1-xCox)2P (x < 0.28) NRs, which are significant for the development of new iron- or cobalt-rich permanent magnet materials without rare-earth or noble metals.