Effects of the fuel type and fuel content on the specific surface area and magnetic properties of solution combusted CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this work, the different fuels (citric acid, glycine and urea) at the various fuel to oxidant ratios (ϕ=0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.25) were used for solution combustion synthesis of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. The phase evolution, microstructure, specific surface area and magnetic properties of the solution combusted CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were investigated by X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, electron microscopy, adsorption-desorption isotherms and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. The specific surface area of the combusted products decreased with the increase of fuel to oxidant ratio (ϕ), irrespective of the fuel type. However, the specific surface area for the glycine fuel was higher than the others, due to the higher combustion rate for releasing gaseous products. Furthermore, the solution combusted CoFe2O4 powders by the glycine fuel exhibited the higher saturation magnetization (63.6 emu/g) on account of their higher crystallinity and particle size.