One-pot synthesis of stable colloidal solutions of MFe2O4 nanoparticles using oleylamine as solvent and stabilizer

An easy, efficient, reproducible and scalable one-pot synthetic methodology to obtain magnetic spinel ferrite nanoparticles has been developed. This approach is based on one-pot thermal decomposition of Fe(acac)3 and M(acac)2 (M = Co, Mn, Cu and Zn) in oleylamine, which also acts as a capping ligand, by producing stable colloidal dispersions of nanoparticles in non-polar solvents.The properties of the nanoparticles have been studied via different techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy, which shows that nanoparticles are monocrystallines and a narrow dispersion in size; magnetic analyses have demonstrated that the resulting ferrite nanoparticles show high saturation values and superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature; X-ray diffraction has also been performed, and it confirms that the synthesized nanoparticles have a spinel structure.Complementarily, ligand exchange has been also carried out in order to produce dispersions of the synthesized nanoparticles in polar media.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► One-pot synthesis of ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (<10 nm) in non-polar media. ► Nanoparticles present high monocrystal quality and monodispersion. ► Superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature. ► Nanoparticles transfer to polar media via ligand exchange.