Synthesis and characterization of superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles coated with thiodiglycol

• Superparamagnetic thiodiglycol coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by in situ coprecipitation method.
• The TDG-Fe3O4 nanoparticles showed better superparamagnetic properties compared to pure Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
• TEM and SEM showed that TDG-Fe3O4 nanoparticles are less agglomerated than pure Fe3O4 nanoparticles.
• The DTG analysis suggested different modes of thiodiglycol binding onto the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles.

In this study, superparamagnetic thiodiglycol coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (TDG-Fe3O4) were synthesized using in situ coprecipitation method in alkali media and were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TGA, VSM, TEM, and SEM. TGA and FTIR results confirmed the binding of thiodiglycol onto the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. XRD pattern showed the presence of peaks corresponding to the inverse spinel structure of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. In addition, the magnetic properties of nanoparticles determined by VSM exhibited TDG-Fe3O4 nanoparticles that have superparamagnetic property with high enough saturation magnetization of 44.55 emu/g. TEM and SEM results showed that TDG-Fe3O4 nanoparticles have good dispersion and are smaller and less agglomerated than pure Fe3O4 nanoparticles due to reduction in attractive forces between the nanoparticles by thiodiglycol. Additionally, the result of DTG analysis of TDG-Fe3O4 nanoparticles suggested that thiodiglycol molecules were bonded to the surface of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles with different binding modes.