The effect of poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) surfactant on phase formation and magnetic properties of hydrothermally synthesized CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

Nanoparticles of CoFe2O4 were synthesized by hydrothermal process at 190 °C with and without poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) addition using treatment durations of 1.5-6 h. The synthesized powders were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and vibration sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. XRD results show presence of CoFe2O4 as the main phase and Co3O4 as the lateral phase in some samples. The results show that in the samples synthesized without PVA addition considerable amount of lateral phase is present after 3 h of hydrothermal treatment while with PVA addition this phase is undetectable in the XRD patterns of the sample synthesized at the same conditions. Microstructural studies represent increasing of particle size with increasing of hydrothermal duration and formation of coarser particles with PVA addition. The highest maximum magnetization (Mmax) values in both of the samples that were synthesized with and without PVA addition are about 59 emu/g that were obtained after 4.5 h of hydrothermal treatment. Intrinsic coercive field (iHc) value of the sample without PVA addition increases from 210 to 430 Oe. While with PVA addition the iHc value changes from 83 Oe to 493 Oe. The mechanism of changes in Mmax and iHc values has been explained.