Structural and magnetic characteristics of PVA/CoFe2O4 nano-composites prepared via mechanical alloying method

• Single phase CoFe2O4 nano-particles synthesized in one step by mechanical alloying.
• PVA/CoFe2O4 magnetic nano-composites were fabricated via mechanical milling.
• FTIR confirmed the interaction between PVA and magnetic CoFe2O4 particles.
• Increasing in milling time and PVA amount led to well dispersion of CoFe2O4.

In this research, polyvinyl alcohol/cobalt ferrite nano-composites were successfully synthesized employing a two-step procedure: the spherical single-phase cobalt ferrite of 20 ± 4 nm mean particle size was synthesized via mechanical alloying method and then embedded into polymer matrix by intensive milling. The results revealed that increase in polyvinyl alcohol content and milling time causes cobalt ferrite particles disperse more homogeneously in polymer matrix, while the mean particle size and shape of cobalt ferrite have not been significantly affected. Transmission electron microscope images indicated that polyvinyl alcohol chains have surrounded the cobalt ferrite nano-particles; also, the interaction between polymer and cobalt ferrite particles in nano-composite samples was confirmed. Magnetic properties evaluation showed that saturation magnetization, coercivity and anisotropy constant values decreased in nano-composite samples compared to pure cobalt ferrite. However, the coercivity values of related nano-composite samples enhanced by increasing PVA amount due to domain wall mechanism.

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