Electrosynthesis of Co, Ni and Zn ferrites nanoparticles in the presence of external magnetic field

Abstract

Magnetic complex oxides of iron nanoparticles are among the most important materials that have been studied. They have been widely used in different areas such as electronic devices, information storage, biomedical areas, drug-delivery, catalyst, and wastewater treatment. In different applications of nanoparticles, the shape and size of particles are very important because the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of the nanoparticles depend on their dimension. In this study, nanoparticles of cobalt, nickel, and zinc ferrites were synthesized in uniform size by an electrochemical technique. First, the anode was made electrochemically by depositing each metal of zinc, nickel, and cobalt on the iron sheet from the solutions of 0.1 M Co2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+ ions as the precursor. Then the electrosynthesis of ferrite nanoparticles was performed in a second electrochemical cell where the prepared electrode was anode and stainless steel (316L) was cathode in the electrolyte solution of CTAB 0.04 M. The optimized value of current density was applied to the electrochemical cell. After then the same synthesis was carried out in the magnetic field supplied by two magnets. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The magnetic properties were investigated by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The comparison of two samples prepared in the magnetic field and without it showed the average size of the samples synthesized in the magnetic field was in the narrower size distribution of 20–30 nm and the saturation magnetization of the nanoparticles increased in the magnetic field.