Magnetic collective state formation upon tuning the interparticle interactions in ensembles of ultrafine ferrihydrite nanoparticles

Abstract

The results of a study of the dynamic (alternating current magnetic susceptibility) and static magnetic properties, as well as 57Fe Mössbauer spectrometry and ferromagnetic resonance of two-line ferrihydrite nanoparticle systems with varying intensities of magnetic interparticle interactions are reported. The strength of the magnetic interparticle interactions has been tuned by coating (with various degrees of coating) the ferrihydrite particles (2–4 nm in size and an average size ∼2.7 nm) of the initial synthetic sample by arabinogalactan. Also, a biogenic ferrihydrite sample (an average particle size of 2-nm) with a natural organic coating was studied and it has the weakest magnetic interparticle interactions among of all the samples. Relaxation times of the particle’s magnetic moment were determined by the data of static and dynamic magnetic susceptibilities and from analysis of 57Fe Mössbauer spectrometry. Based on the temperature dependences of the relaxation times, it has been concluded that the predominantly collective processes of freezing of the particle magnetic moments occur under the action of the magnetic interparticle interactions. It is shown that an important role in these processes is played by a magnetic subsystem of the surface spins of the particles. The effect of the interplay between the surface spin and magnetic moment subsystems on the static magnetic properties (low-temperature magnetic hysteresis loops) and the parameters of the microwave absorption line under the magnetic resonance conditions is discussed.