Precipitating agent (NaOH and NH4OH) dependent magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Abstract

This work investigates the effect of precipitating agents sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) on the structural and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. The co-precipitation method was used to synthesize cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (S1 and S2). The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by techniques such as x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and using a vibrating sample magnetometer at temperatures of 10 and 300 K. XRD results confirm the formation of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. SEM images revealed the formation of round-shaped particles with a diameter range of 10–20 nm. Crystallite size, saturation magnetization, coercivity, squareness ratio, and anisotropy constant depend on the precipitating agents. The values of saturation magnetization for S1 are 23.6 and 32.6 emu/g whereas those for S2 are 27.4 and 41.2 emu/g at 10 and 300 K, respectively. These nanoparticles can be explored for applications in the fields of magnetism and biomedical science.