Structural, morphological, and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4 nano-ferrites synthesized via Co-precipitation route

Abstract

Cobalt ferrites (CFO) NPs with strong magneto-crystalline anisotropy, high coercivity, and remarkable chemical stability have attracted much attention in the past few decades. In this research, the co-precipitation approach was used to synthesize CFO NPs (i.e. as-prepared and calcined at 400 °C). Through the use of X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), the structural, morphological, chemical, and magnetic properties of these CFO NPs were examined. Rietveld's refined XRD pattern confirms that both the samples crystallized into a cubic structure with space group Fd-3 m. The average crystallite size was found using Williamson-plots Hall's to be 37.27 nm and 21.10 nm, respectively. To verify the stoichiometry of CoFe2O4, the FE-SEM was used to confirm the equiaxial shape of the particles, and the EDS was used to identify their composition. The saturation magnetization (MS) for as-prepared and calcined CFO NPs at room temperature was determined to be 51.80, 56.303 emug−1 using the magnetic hysteresis loop. The coercive field (HC) was calculated to be 0.593, 0.421 kOe, and the remanent magnetization (Mr) to be 15.28, 14.405 emug−1.