Effect of In on superparamagnetic CoInxFe2-xO4 (x = 0–0.15) synthesized through hydrothermal method

Abstract

We report the effect of In on superparamagnetic CoInxFe2-xO4 (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) nanoparticles (NPs) prepared through one step hydrothermal method. The trace of In ions in the matrix causes to change the structural and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 which is confirmed by XRD and magnetic analyses. X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigation along with the infrared spectroscopy exposed the formation of single cubic phase ferrite. The crystallite size decreased from 18.6 to 12.8 nm with the increase of In content. The particles size measured from SEM images were in the range of 40 to 24 nm depending on In content. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) characterization at room temperature (RT) showed the typical superparamagnetic nature of the samples. This superparamagnetism arises due to size effect and single domain nature of the particles. The maximum saturation magnetization (Ms) for CoFe2O4 is 59.02 emu g−1 which is much higher than the value (44.3 emu g−1) obtained by coprecitation method. Such superparamagnetic CoInxFe2-xO4 nanoparticles obtained in this study may find practical applications for hyperthermia treatment and biosensors.

Keywords

• Spinel cobalt ferrite
• Superparamagnetism
• Hydrothermal