Impact of different morphologies of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles for tuning of structural, optical and magnetic properties

Abstract

Here we report on the control of CoFe2O4 (CFO) morphology (in the form of sphere, cube, and hexagonal nanoparticles (NPs)) by tuning the preparative parameters in facile thermal decomposition technique for fine tuning of the structural, optical and magnetic properties. X-ray diffraction study revealed the cubic spinel crystal structure of cobalt ferrite. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the non-equilibrium cation distribution between sphere, cube, and hexagonal CFO-NPs. Strong correlation between optical band gap and magnetic properties with the CFO -NPs attributed to the non-equilibrium cation distribution between the octahedral and tetrahedral sites for different morphology with a quantitative analysis. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.