Structure and magnetic properties of Cd(1-x)CoxFe2O4 stoichiometric nanoferrite system

Here, we investigate the morphological and magnetic characteristics of Cd(1-x)CoxFe2O4 nanoferrite system with (0.0 <= x <= 1.0 mole), prepared by the hydrothermal technique. The structure of the synthesized nanoferrite as resulted from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that cadmium-cobalt nanoferrites possess fcc CdO, hexagonal Fe2O3, and hexagonal CoFe2O4 phases. The average crystalline size is ranged from Dav = 10.9 +/- 0.9 nm to Dav = 33.3 +/- 3.0 nm as determined by the Scherer formulation. The average grain size was extracted from High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) scans. The metal-oxide (M-O) bonds were confirmed with the Fourier Transform Inferred (FTIR) technique. The hysteresis curves of the prepared samples indicate that the system exhibits ferromagnetic properties. Interestingly, the saturation magnetization gradually increases with the Co content from 0.42 to 60.6 emu g-1 corresponding to x = 0.0 and x = 1.0, respectively. This remarkable increase represents the highest reported value for this system so far. Excluding the concentration x = 0.0, the saturation magnetization increases linearly with Co concentration. Although few earlier works reported scattered trends on the relation between saturation magnetization and Co concentration in Cd(1-x)CoxFe2O4 nanoferrites, the linearity of the relation is observed for the first time.