Morphologic, structural, and magnetic characterization of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles synthesized at different temperatures

In this study we report on the synthesis and characterization of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles (NPs), synthesized by chemical co-precipitation in alkaline medium. Two samples were synthesized at two different temperatures, 35 and 90 oC. Both samples were characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and room-temperature (RT) magnetization. Two samples showed superparamagnetic behavior (SPM) at RT. TEM reveals morphological mean diameter increasing 5.8 nm to 10.4 nm, with the increase of the co-precipitation temperature. XRD confirm the inverse cubic spinel structure. The RT magnetization curves were analyzed by the first-order Langevin function averaged out by a lognormal distribution function of magnetic moments. This analysis showed saturation magnetization and magnetic moment increases from 60.2 to 74.8 emu/g and from 3.9 x 103 to 8.2 x 103 mB, respectively