Structural and magnetic properties of CoFe2O4/NiFe2O4 core/shell nanocomposite prepared by the hydrothermal method

CoFe2O4/NiFe2O4 core/shell magnetic nanocomposite was synthesized by using hydrothermal method.The analysis of XRD indicated the coexistence of CoFe2O4, NiFe2O4as core/shell composite. The core/shell structure of the composite sample has been confirmed by HR-TEM images, EDX and FT-IR measurements. The size of obtained core/shell nanoparticles was 17 nm in core diameter and about 3 nm in shell thickness. The magnetization measurements showed that both the coercive field and the saturation magnetization of the resulting core/shell nanocomposite were slightly decreased compared to those of the CoFe2O4 core but the thermal stability is of the magnetization parameter was enhanced. Furthermore, superparamagnetic phase is established at temperatures higher than the room temperature. The results were discussed in terms of the surface pinning and the magnetic interaction at the interface between the core and shell.