Synthesis and magnetic properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with magnetite nanoparticles

Magnetite particles with nanoscale sizes were deposited along multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) through a simple, effective and reproducible chemical route. The structure, morphology and magnetic properties of the hybrid materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, VSM. The characterization results show that the surface of nanotubes was loaded with iron oxides nanoclusters and each nanocluster is composed by several nanocrystals with a mean diameter of 10 nm. The experimental magnetic hysteretic behavior has been also studied by means of the Preisach model and a good agreement between experimental data and numerical computations was found. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved