Characterization of Mesoporous Cobalt Ferrite Foam Fabricated from Sol-Gel-Derived Nanoparticles

Abstract

Porous magnetic ceramics have promising applications in filtering, sensor, catalyst, etc. This work concerns to the fabrication of mesoporous magnetic foam using synthesized nanopowders Singlephase cobalt ferrite nanopowders with a mean particle size of 60 nm were synthesized by modified Pechinitype sol-gel method, without pH adjustment, by calcination at 750 ∘C for 1 h. Precursor and derived cobalt ferrite nanopowders were characterized by thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction pattern, scanning and transmission electron microscopes and vibration sample magnetometer analyses, proportionately. Furthermore, stereomicroscope and nitrogen gas adsorption-desorption analysis were employed for evaluating the resultant monolithic products Pure carbamide and nanopowders were subjected to successfully fabrication of cobalt ferrite foam using the space holder agent method. Total porosity of the produced foam was estimated about 58 %. The results demonstrated that obtained cobalt ferrite foam has a mesoporous structure and its surface area was calculated as 1.342 m 2/g. Morphological analyses showed that the cell walls of the foam consist of sintered particles without abnormal grain growth microstructure. Also, the average particle sizes of cell walls were about 25 nm. The magnetic properties of fabricated foam favorably were close to the theoretical values of bulk cobalt ferrite, so that the coercivity and saturation magnetization of foam were gained 0.89 kOe and 75.8 emu/g, respectively.