Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.105, No.25, 5856-5861, 2001
The X-ray diffraction patterns of bimetallic FexM100-x (M = Mo and W) nanoclusters
We produced the bimetallic FexMo100-x and FexW100-x nanoclusters with cluster size of 1.5-4.5 nm by thermally decomposing a mixture of two metal carbonyl vapor species and recorded the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of them for the mole percent (x) range of 0 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 100. The XRD patterns changed from that of pure M (M = Mo and W) nanoclusters to that of pure Fe nanoclusters as x increased. The solubilities of bimetallic nanoclusters were 2-3 times higher than those of the corresponding bulk alloys, respectively. We observed that the cluster size decreased whereas the atomic level strain increased as the degree of alloying increased. We also observed that the cluster size effect on the broadening of the full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of the;XRD peaks was stronger than the strain effect. Both cluster size decrease and atomic level strain increase of FexW100-x nanoclusters were larger than those of FexMo100-x nanoclusters.