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Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) with different shapes have been prepared by a ‘solventless’ synthesis approach to probe shape anisotropy effects on the magnetic and inductive heating properties. Various shapes including spheres, octahedrons, cubes, rods, wires, and multipods are obtained through alterations in reaction conditions such as the ratio of precursor to surfactant content and heating rate. Magnetic and Mössbauer measurements reveal better stoichiometry in anisotropic-shaped Fe3O4 NPs than that in the spherical and multipod NPs. As a result, the magnetization value of the anisotropic-shaped NPs approaches the value for bulk material (∼86 emu g−1). More surprisingly, the Verwey transition, which is a characteristic phase transition of bulk magnetite structure, is observed near 120 K in the anisotropic-shaped NPs, which further corroborates the fact that these NPs possess better stoichiometry compared to the spherical and multipod-shaped NPs. Other than the improved magnetic properties, these anisotropic-shaped NPs are more effective for hyperthermia applications. For example, compared to the conventional spherical NPs, the nanowires show much higher SAR value up to 846 W g−1, making them a potential candidate for practical hyperthermia treatment. In particular, the octahedral NPs shows an SAR value higher than the same size spherical NPs, which demonstrates the importance of occurrence of the Verwey transition in Fe3O4 NPs for better stoichiometric and higher heating.

Brown's theorem on coercivity of ferromagnetic materials has predicted that the coercivity level is substantially higher than in practice for all the materials studied in experiments in the past seven decades, which is known as the Brown's paradox. In this paper, a system with a coercivity close to the one predicted by Brown's theorem is investigated. Cobalt nanowires are obtained by chemical synthesis that give rise to coercive forces significantly higher than the magnetocrystalline anisotropy field, verifying the Brown's theorem. It is found that the coercivity is strongly dependent on the nanowire diameter, the alignment of the wires in an assembly, and the packing density of the assembly. An analysis based on the current experimental results and related literature reveals a coercivity ceiling in consideration of geometrical dimensions and the effective magnetic anisotropy. Quantitative information is obtained about the proximity effect on the coercivity and the magnetization which shows the correlation between the energy product and the packing density. Furthermore, it is found that by coating the nanowires with Fe, the energy density can be enhanced. These findings provide a guideline for materials design of future high‐performance permanent magnets that take advantage of shape anisotropy at the nanoscale.

Self-assembly of nanoparticles into ordered patterns is a novel approach to build up new consolidated materials with desired collective physical properties. Herein, nanoparticle assemblies of composition-modulated bimagnetic nanoparticles have been...