Role of Particle Size on Structural and Magnetic Behavior of Nanocrystalline Cu-Ni Ferrite

Abstract

Particle size has significant effect on the magnetic properties of fine particles. In this work, Cu0.2Ni0.8Fe2O4 nano-particles have been synthesized by the co-precipitation method. Different particle sizes were obtained by annealing the samples at various temperatures. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm the formation of cubic spinel structure. The particle size was found to enhance with increasing the annealing temperature. The saturation magnetization and the blocking temperature increase with particle size, which is a typical characteristic of the superparamagnetic behaviour. The dc magnetization measurements show that the samples are superparamagnetic above the blocking temperatures and the blocking temperature of the nanoparticles correlates with the size of the nanoparticles that is found to increase as the function of the particle size. The hysteresis curves show reduction in saturation magnetization in case of nanoparticles as compared to their bulk counterparts. This has been explained on the basis that the magnetic moments in the surface layers of a nanoparticle are in a state of frozen disorder. However, the saturation magnetization increases with particle size, which is a characteristic property of the single domain superparamagnetic particles.