Synthesis and characterization of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles for hyperthermia treatment application

Abstract

The uniform and narrow particle size distribution nanoparticles of cobalt ferrite were synthesized by facile co-precipitation route by using analytical grade cobalt nitrate hexahydrate and ferric nitrate in 1:2 molar ratio as starting materials followed by annealing at 350 °C for one hour. The characterizations of as prepared CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were carried out by high resolution XRD, FTIR and TEM techniques to reveal their structural and morphological details. XRD pattern of the sample shows formation of single crystalline phase of CoFe2O4 with all broad diffraction peaks and confirms ultra-fine nature of these particles. The intensity and the inter planer spacing (d) values of the entire observed diffraction peaks match well with the cubic form of cobalt ferrite standard reference. The crystallite size of 8.5 nm was obtained by using Scherrer formula. Infrared transmission spectrum shows the tetrahedral and octahedral stretching peaks of Fe3+-O2- vibration at 572 cm−1 and 420 cm−1 respectively. Hence confirming the formation of spinel structured CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. TEM image of these nanoparticles exhibits uniformly distributed spherical shaped nanoparticles with narrow size distribution in 8-10 nm range similar to that as obtained from XRD pattern. The aim of the present work is to produce uniform sized cobalt ferrite nanoparticles on large scale and use them for hyperthermia treatment application.