Size dependence of structure and magnetic properties of CoCr2O4 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal technique

The size dependence of structure and magnetic behavior has been investigated on spinel chromite CoCr2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) with different particles from ~2.8 to ~19.7 nm, synthesized by a hydrothermal technique. The microstructure analysis shows that the lattice parameter increases monotonically with reduced particle sizes. Compared with the bulk sample, all synthesized NPs exhibit lower Curie temperature (TC~87 K) from paramagnetic (PM) to collinear short-range ferrimagnetic (FiM) state, and this PM-FiM transition is gradually degraded with decreased particle sizes and nearly vanishes for ~2.8 nm NPs. No magnetic transition from short-range FiM order to long-range spiral spin structure is found at low temperatures contrast to the bulk ones. Instead, a cluster spin-glass (SG) transition appears for NPs with D≤5.4 nm. The dynamic behavior of the cluster SG can be described by a power law with the spin relaxation time in the range of 10−10-10−8 s and critical exponent zv′=9.9±0.6, in accordance with a three-dimensional Ising SG behavior. The glass transition temperature (Tg) decreases from 16.3 K for ~5.4 nm to 12.8 K for ~2.8 nm NPs.