Salt-assisted combustion synthesis of highly dispersed superparamagnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

Highly dispersed spinel CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with average size of about 10 nm were successfully prepared by a novel salt-assisted combustion process. The effects of KCl and calcination temperature on the properties of the products were investigated by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Brunnauer–Emmet–Teller method. The results indicated that the obtained CoFe2O4 nanoparticles had small particle size, well crystallinity and dispersibility, and large BET surface area. Moreover, the magnetic property of CoFe2O4 was measured by superconducting quantum interference device. Magnetization studies at room temperature showed superparamagnetic behavior of the obtained CoFe2O4 nanoparticles.