Synthesis of ferrofluids based on cobalt ferrite nanoparticles: Influence of reaction time on structural, morphological and magnetic properties

In this work, for first time the ferrofluids based on the cobalt ferrite (CoFe2O4) nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation method at different reaction times (0.5-6.5 h). Crystal structure, morphology and magnetic properties of the cobalt ferrite nanoparticles and the ferrofluids based on the nanoparticles were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The XRD patterns of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles synthesized at different reaction times indicated that all samples are single phase in accordance with inverse cubic spinel structure with space group Fd-3m, and no impurity phase was observed. By increasing the reaction time to 3.5 h, the lattice parameter and the average crystallites size increased and then afterwards decreased by increasing the reaction time. The microscopic studies indicated the formation of nanosized particles with nearly spherical in shape, whereas the average particle size for all samples is found to be less than 50 nm. The results of VSM also showed that the saturation magnetization and coercivity field of the cobalt ferrite nanoparticles and the ferrofluids were influenced by reaction time, whereas the ferrofluids have lower values of magnetic parameters than that of nanoparticles.