Abstract
Magnetic cobalt ferrite has wide spread applications, especially as catalyst for the conversion of alkenes to related aldehydes. Despite several studies found in the literature concerning the fabrication of cobalt ferrite, none has reported on gamma irradiation as a tool for the synthesis of submicrometer sized inverse spinel CoFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>. The actual investigation reports on the application of γ-irradiation method for the synthesis of superparamagnetic CoFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>, using metal salts precursors and organic reagents. The material fabrication occurs in two main steps as sofar described. The obtained powder was isolated after irradiation and was characterized using X-ray diffraction method, transmission electron microscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible measurements and vibrating sample magnetometer. Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction data revealed the presence of a reverse spinel structure. The magnetic properties of the fabricated powder exhibited the measured lower coercivity and remanence, demonstrating that the spinel powders are made of superparamagnetic particles and finally, to gain information about the photocatalytic properties of the synthetized material, the room temperature recorded optical measurements for different samples proved that these powder materials may probably exhibit new opportunities which could improve their high photocatalytic efficiency under visible light. The prepared materials could be used as potetentiel candididates for the oxidation of organics compounds.
Highlights
Nanoscience and technology is exponentially improving owing to their potential applications
We recently reported on γ-irradiation technique as a tool in preparing Fe2O3 nano-particles [19,20,21], zinc sulfide nanocrystalline in a non-aqueous system [22], spherically nanocrystalline sized Co3O4 in alkaline medium [23] and on the preparation of non- stoichiometric NiO nanocrystalline [24] et silver nanodispesed metal [25]
For sample 3 (The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern not shown here), a little amount of CoO could be identified as a secondary phase and at low irradiation dose, the Xray spectrum mainly indicated the presence of cobalt ferrite and certain unidentified phases peaks
Summary
Nanoscience and technology is exponentially improving owing to their potential applications. Nano-sized materials made of cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) could be used both from fundamental research and for various physical, chemical and biological applications. They are used for their thermal, mechanical and chemical stability [1], magnetism and electronics properties [2], sensor design [3], catalysis [4 –7], and medicine [8,9]. The ferrites spinel has a cubic close-packed structure consisting of oxygen arrangement, in which cations with small radius value less than 1Å (M2+) occupies tetrahedral and octahedral sites.
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