Calcination effect on structural, morphological and magnetic properties of nano-sized CoFe2O4 developed by a simple co-precipitation technique

A thorough analysis of the calcination effect upon structural, morphological and magnetic properties of nano-sized cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) particles synthesized by co-precipitation technique has been demonstrated. A mixed alkali as precipitating agent (mixture of Sodium hydroxide and Sodium carbonate) was used. The developed samples were calcined at six distinct temperatures. The crystallinity, chemical state, morphology, elemental composition and magnetic property of the developed ferrites were investigated by using XRD, FT-IR, SEM, EDS and PPMS respectively. The evaluation of crystallite size and lattice parameter has been performed by the Debye-Scherrer's formula and Nelson-Riley function respectively using XRD data. Average crystallite sizes were in between 12 and 123 nm revealed from XRD. Average particle sizes were between 84 and 139 nm estimated from SEM images. The crystallite size, particle size and magnetic properties of the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles exhibited strong reliance upon calcination temperature as increased continually. The coercivity of the sample primarily increased afterwards decreased with increased calcination temperature. The results suggest that co-precipitation method might render a propitious option for preparing superior quality cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. The synthesized nano-sized CoFe2O4 are promising for liquid black pigment for the decoration of ceramic products through digital printing and sensing materials in humidity sensor.