Microwave-assisted combustion synthesis of CoFe2O4 with urea, and its magnetic characterization

Abstract

A microwave-assisted combustion method has been utilized to prepare nanophased powders of CoFe2O4 using urea as fuel. The process takes only a few minutes to obtain as-received CoFe2O4. Structural and magnetic properties of the products were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. Magnetization measurements showed that, at the lowest temperature investigated, the coercivity of Co-ferrite is much larger than that of bulk and this is attributed to exchange anisotropy due to spin disorder at the particle surface. © 2007 Acta Materialia Inc.