Design of magnetic nano-architecture

[break] Prof. Davide Peddis, from the Institute of Structure of Matter, National Research Council (CNR) on Monterotondo Scalo (RM), Italia, will give a talk at the Faculty of Science and Technology, about Design of magnetic nano-architecture. A physical property depends on the size of an object, if its size is comparable to a dimension relevant to that property. In magnetism, typical sizes are in the nanometer range, leading to a drastic change of magnetic properties at the nanoscale. In particular, magnetic nanoparticles have generated much interest because of their possible applications in high density data storage, ferrofluid technology, catalysis and biomedicine (drug delivery, contrast enhanced MRI). In addition NPs play an important role in nature, as they are commonly found in soils, sediments and rocks and may store information on the past Earth’s magnetic field as well as environmental conditions at the time of sediment deposition For this reason in the last two decades great attention is directed towards these materials, mainly discussing physical properties in term of their dependence on particle size. However, recent studies have demonstrated that besides the particle size, other factors such as, chemical composition, magnetic structure, and magnetic interactions strongly influence magnetic features of nanocrystals. On the other hand, changing the physical properties without significant variation of the particle size is not trivial and for this reason few examples of comprehensive studies are present in literature. In this view, this contribution focuses on the design of magnetic nanostructured in order to govern the magnetic properties beyond the effect of particle size. Particular attention will be devoted to discuss interparticle magnetic interactions and magnetic structure (e.g. cationic distribution and spin canting) as a tool to modify magnetic properties of nanoparticle based materials. Davide Peddis was born in Cagliari (Italy) in 1976. He graduated magna cum laude in Physical chemistry (2003) and obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry (2007) at the University of Cagliari (PhD Thesis title: Nanostructured Magnets – Synthesis and characterization of CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles). In the years 2007-2009 he worked as post-doctoral researcher at ISM – CNR (tutor: Dr. D. Fiorani). He has extensive experience in collaborations with international groups: he was visiting professor at the Le Mans University (collaboration Prof. J.M. Grenèche), Extended Guest Lecturer at the Uppsala University (collaboration with Prof. P. Nordblad and Dr. R. Mathieu) and visiting scholar at the University of Delaware (Collaboration with Prof. G. Hadjipanayis). He is member of Italian Chemical Society (Chemical Physics Division, Didactic Division) and European Physical Society. He regularly acts as referee for various scientific international journals (Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACs Nano, Chemistry of Materials, Physical review B Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Magnetic and Magnetic Materials) and as an independent evaluator for international research projects. The scientific activity of D. Peddis focuses on the physical chemistry of nanostructured magnetic materials (nanoparticles, thin films) and it is presented in 40 publications (google scholar citations:636; h-index;14), three book chapters, and over 100 communications, including invited and oral presentations, to national and international conferences.