Reduced graphene oxide decorated with Ni-Fe-Mo permalloy obtained by sputtering

This work illustrates an effective method for obtaining hybrid nanoparticles of Ni-Fe-Mo permalloy and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The metallic nanoparticles were spread by the sputtering technique, which allowed a good dispersion of the metallic nanoparticles onto rGO substrate powder. TEM showed permalloy nanoparticles smaller than 8 nm uniformly distributed throughout rGO. Permalloy/rGO hybrid with 10.5 wt% loading of permalloy nanoparticles was calculated by TGA. RBS experiment reveals that permalloy target and the nanoparticles deposited have similar composition. The interaction between permalloy and rGO was studied by FT-IR. Ni-Fe-Mo/rGO presented an electrical conductivity of 122 Scm(-1), significantly higher than the original rGO and a magnetization hysteresis-loop coercivity of 16 Oe at room temperature. To our knowledge this is the first work in which permalloy nanoparticles are deposited onto graphene powder substrate by a physical impregnation technique.