Highly crystalline cobalt nano ferrites have been synthesized by the combustion route using DL-alanine, a racemic mixture of right handed (a) and left handed (L) chemical forms of alpha-alanine, as fuel. The synthesized samples were annealed at two different temperatures, viz. 500 degrees C and 800 degrees C, for 2 h to investigate the temperature effect on crystallite size, phase purity, thermal stability, Curie temperature, and magnetic properties. Formation of single-phase spinel nanoparticles in both the as-prepared and annealed conditions has been observed. High saturation magnetization (71.1 emu/g) for as-prepared sample and a high coercive field (1400 Oe) for the sample annealed at 500 degrees C/211 were obtained. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.