Structural, vibrational and magnetic properties of heat treated CuFe2O4 nanoparticles prepared by two different synthesis routes

Abstract

The present study employed co-precipitation and high-energy ball milling techniques to synthesize nanoparticles of copper ferrite. Subsequently, the powders underwent air annealing at three distinct temperatures, namely 600 °C, 800 °C, and 1000 °C, for a duration of 3 h. The structural and magnetic properties of the generated compositions were assessed and examined by a range of techniques, including as X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Based on X-ray diffraction examinations, it has been observed that the co-precipitation process results in the production of copper ferrite nanoparticles of smaller size compared to those obtained using the milling procedure. The infrared absorption spectra demonstrated that the enhancement of the annealing temperature resulted in an augmentation of the structural integrity of milled copper ferrite. The results of magnetic investigations conducted at ambient temperature indicate that increasing the annealing temperature resulted in an enhancement of saturation magnetization. The copper ferrite material, which was synthesized using co-precipitation and subsequently subjected to annealing at a temperature of 1000 °C, had the most minimal coercivity value of 138 G and remanence value of 5.26 emu/g. In the context of high-density data storage devices, there is a strong preference for lower coercivity and remanence characteristics. It has been observed that the enhancement of structural and magnetic characteristics requires annealing at elevated temperatures.