Mihael Drofenik

Preparation and Study of Zinc Ferrite Nanoparticles with a High Magnetization

The zinc-doped maghemite nanoparticles were prepared using ultrasonic radiation. As a precursor, a suspension of maghemite in an alkaline aqueous solution of zinc nitrate at pH = 9 was sonicated. They were investigated by x-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM), and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. The results show that by using ultrasound radiation, zinc Zn2+ can substitute for Fe3+ up to a composition close to zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4), which has a random distribution of Fe3+ ions over both A and B sublattices in the spinel structure with an inversity parameter of δ = 0.322. This leads to a maximum saturation magnetization (M s ) of 64.1 emu/g at 300 K and 73.5 emu/g at 2 K.

Synthesis and Characterization of Silica-Coated Cu

The synthesis of magnetic Cu1-xNix nanoparticles was carried out in cationic water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions of water/cetyl-trimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB), n-butanol/isooctane by the reduction of nickel and copper chlorides with hydrazine and NaOH. The synthesized Cu1-xNix particles were heat treated to maintain their proper homogeneity and Curie temperature. Some alloy particles with the composition CU27.5M72.5 were coated with silica prior to the thermal homogenization in order to retain the pristine morphology. The magnetic particles were characterized using XRD, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and magnetic measurements. The thermal demagnetization in the vicinity of the Curie temperature of the nanoparticles was studied using a modified TGA/SDTA method.

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We have prepared nanocomposites containing large amounts of superparamagnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a polymethyl methacrylate matrix. The preparation was divided into three steps. In the first step, maghemite nanoparticles were synthesized using coprecipitation from aqueous solutions, followed by coating with oleic acid (OA). In the second step, the OA-coated nanoparticles were dispersed in n-decane to prepare a stable, concentrated suspension. Finally, methyl methacrylate was added to the suspension and in situ polymerization was carried out at elevated temperatures. The content of nanoparticles was controlled by varying the nanoparticles/monomer ratio. The main focus was on controlling the nanocomposites homogeneity. The nanocomposites were characterized using X-ray powder diffractometry, TEM, SEM, thermogravimetry, FT-IR, NMR and magnetic measurements. The TEM analysis showed that the nanoparticles were well dispersed in the polymer matrix. They retained their superparamagnetic nature even when encapsulated by polymer with concentrations up to 48 wt%. The high loading of magnetic nanoparticles resulted in relatively high saturation magnetizations of the nanocomposites, up to 31 emu/g.