Effect of surfactant coating on magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles: ESR study

Magnetic properties of surfactant-coated and uncoated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, Fe3O4 (SPION) were investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR) technique. For all samples, a strong and broad single ESR signal has been observed at all temperatures. A strong temperature dependence of ESR linewidth and resonance field is observed. Also, there is a strong effect of surfactant coating on magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. While the resonance field is decreasing by coating, the linewidth of the ESR spectra is increasing. These changes in resonance field and the linewidth are attributed to the decrease in effective magnetic moment due to a non-collinear spin structure originated from the pinning of the surface spins and coated surfactant at the interface of nanoparticles. Also, the changes are due to the contribution of the volume of the diamagnetic coating mass to the sample volume. (C) 2005 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.