Effect of Calcination Temperature on the Properties of Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles Synthesized by the Auto-Combustion Sol-Gel Method in the Presence of Albumin

Introduction and Objectives: Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles have garnered significant attention from researchers owing to their desirable properties and unique performance. Consequently, efforts have been made in recent years to optimize the parameters influencing the properties of the nanoparticles. Accordingly, the aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of calcination temperature on the structural, microstructural, and magnetic properties.Materials and Methods: To this end, cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized with the self-combustion sol-gel method in the presence of the natural additive albumin, and were calcined at four temperatures of 700, 800, 900, and 1000 °C and characterized with X-ray diffraction analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer analysis.Results: The obtained results showed that at lower temperatures, the Co3O4 as impurity was formed, whereas with increasing calcination temperature to 900 °C, a single-phase spinel crystal structure with an average crystallite size in the range of 21 to 105 nm was obtained. In addition, images revealed that the calcination temperature had a significant influence on the morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles. Furthermore, the spectra clearly confirmed the formation of metal-oxygen bonds. The results also revealed that with changing the calcination temperature, the saturation magnetization and coercivity varied in the ranges of 25.26-45.14 emu/g and 170-743.28 Oe, respectively.Conclusion: The results show that the optimization of the calcination temperature is greatly effective in enhancing the final properties.