Study of structural, morphological and magnetic properties of Ag substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles prepared by honey assisted combustion method and evaluation of their antibacterial activity

Pure and Ag substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (NPs) having the composition (1−x)CoFe2O4: xAg (x = 0.0, 0.2) were synthesized by a novel honey assisted combustion method in order to investigate their structural and magnetic properties along with their antibacterial activity. XRD patters confirm the spinel phase of CoFe2O4 and the presence of silver (Ag) nanoparticles in the spinel network. The incorporation of Ag in CoFe2O4 spinel structure enhanced the size of the unit cell, resulting to higher value of lattice parameter (a) compared to the pure CoFe2O4. The sintering process promoted the growth of the crystallite sizes (D). The crystallite sizes of the synthesized and annealed powders were found in the range of 24-41 nm. From the EDX studies, it seemed that the distribution of Ag nanoparticles was non-uniform. The saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercivity (Hc) of the powders were influenced by annealing as well as with the substitution of Ag. The highest value of saturation magnetization (60 emu/g) was obtained by the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with the coercivity value 1358 Oe. The saturation magnetization and coercivity of Ag doped CoFe2O4 were less than that of pure CoFe2O4. The present cobalt ferrite nanoparticles and Ag doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles have shown good antibacterial activities. But Ag doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles seems to be the potential candidates for effective antibacterial activity. The structural and magnetic results along with the results of antibacterial activities are reported in the present manuscript.