Physical and magnetic properties comparison of cobalt ferrite nanopowder using sol-gel and sonochemical methods

Abstract

Cobalt ferrite or CoFe2O4 has unique physical and magnetic properties depend on its synthesis method. The application of cobalt ferrite as nanomedicine material become more interesting, however analysis on physical and magnetic properties based on synthesis method have not been discussed. The cobalt ferrite in this research was synthesised using two different methods: the sol-gel with duration sintering variations of 500℃, 800℃, and 1100℃ and unsintered sonochemical. The phase identification analysis and crystal size used XRD and morphology analysis used SEM, the functional group bond analysis used FTIR, and magnetic property analysis used VSM. The smallest crystal size from the XRD result was 13.25 nm with 57.04% crystallinity. The morphology from the synthesized cobalt ferrite was mostly agglomerated. The FTIR showed functional group vibration at 601-636 cm-1 that signified the spinel structure of the cobalt ferrite. There was a change of hysteresis loop curve from hard magnetic to soft magnetic, and there was a sample with a paramagnetic curve.