Abstract: A method of stabilizing soft particles to create dried nanocomposite magnets includes coating a plurality of soft particles with a layer of SiO2, the soft particles being nanoparticles, creating a composite by mixing the soft particles with hard phase via a solution phase based assembly, annealing the composite, washing the composite with an alkaline solution to remove SiO2, and compacting the composite to create dried nanocomposite magnets.

Abstract: Monodisperse NiPd alloy nanoparticles (NPs) are synthesized and assembled on graphene (G) or other support to provide clean, efficient catalysis of tandem reactions—dehydrogenation of ammonia borane (AB) and hydrogenation of R—NO2 and/or R—CN to R—NH2. The tandem reactions proceed quickly and with high efficiency in aqueous methanol solutions at room temperature, and the supported catalyst is readily recovered for re-use, providing a simple, efficient and ‘green’ route to the preparation of many common pharmaceutical, dye or other chemical products. NiPd alloy NPs of 3.4 nanometer size were prepared by co-reduction of nickel(II) acetate and palladium(II) acetlyacetonate by borane-tert-butylamine in oleylamine and deposited on G via a solution phase self-assembly process. The G-NiPd showed composition-dependent catalysis on the tandem reaction with G-Ni30Pd70 being the most active.