ABSTRACT

Magnetic nanoparticles of copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) were synthesized by

chemical co-precipitation method. The particle size of Copper ferrite nanoparticle
is in the range of 100 nm to 200 nm sintered at 700 0C temperature for 5 hrs. The
nanoparticle of copper ferrites shows ferromagnetic behaviour.
Graphical Abstract:
1. Introduction
Ferrites are chemical compounds which are composed of a ceramic material
and iron oxide as their main component. A ferromagnetic ceramic compound,
ferrites, has a spinel type structure.Magnetic nanoparticles with uniform size
distributions are of great interest because of their unique magnetic properties,
dominated by superparamagnetisum. The magnetic property of the ferrite is due
the structure and the distribution arrangement of the ions in the sub
lattice.Magnetic properties of ferrites are directly related to the distribution of the
cation over tetrahedral and octahedral lattice sites. Since the magnetic moments of
the ions are ordered parallel within each sublattice and antiparallel between both
sublattices, the difference in the magnetic moments between both sublattices gives
magnetic moment to the ferrite.
Most of the ferrite has a spinel structure with formulae AB2O4, where “A”
are divalent ions such as Mg2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, and “B” are the trivalent ions
such as Fe3+ and Al3+. Spinel structure have an oxygen ion sub lattice, in a cubic
close-packed arrangement with cation occupying various combinations of the
octahedral (O) and tetrahedral (T) sites. The cubic unit cell contains 8 formula
units and containing 32 O and 64 T sites. Spinels are basically categorized into a
normal and inverse spinel. In normal spinel, the divalent cation “A” are positioned
at the tetrahedral (T) sites and the trivalent cation “B” on the octahedral (O) sites.
NiFe2O4 (NF) or CoFe2O4 (CF) has an inverse spinel crystal structure.
In an inverse spinel “A” cation occupies on half of the octahedral
coordination sites and half the “B” cation occupies the other half (O) sites as well
as all “T” sites.Copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) is a very effective ferrite like the other
spinel ferrites. CuFe2O4 is one of the most important magnetic materials with
regular spinel structure with tetrahedral A- occupied by Cu2+ ions and Fe3+ ions
occupied by B- of nanoparticles. In spinel structure the atom A and atom B are

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exactly anti ferromagnetic, the spin cancel each other. The magnetic property rise
due to the Fe3+which align themselves on the application of field. Depending on
the magnetic properties, ferrites can be categorized as “Soft” and “hard” ferrite.
Soft ferrites have low corecivity while the hard ferrites have high corecivity. Hard
ferrites have high corecivity and moderate magnetization. Corecivity stands for the
resistance to get demagnetized on the removal of the applied field which satisfies it
for being a permanent magnet [1-7].
Therefore in this project we report synthesis copper ferrite with general
formula CuFe2O4.The spinel ferrite were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation
method has several advantages such as good chemical homogeneity, high purity,
simple and economical method to produce large quantity of smaller particles and
low sintering temperature as compare to ceramic method.

2. Experimental Procedure :
Copper sulphate 0.2N were taken in a 50ml beaker. In another beaker 0.4N
ferric nitrate was taken in 100ml beaker. Then solutions were mixed in 500ml
beaker and stirred for 1 hour to make the mixture homogeneous. Then add 50 ml
1% sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) to above precursor solution. Then drop-wise
addition of ammonia with the help of lab made assembly to adjust flow rate
approximately 1 ml/min with constant stirring at 1000rpm on Remi’s magnetic
stirrer. The pH of the solution was maintained between 8-10. The color of the
solution changed from dark red to black. The solution was left for ageing (24
hours). The product was filtered and then washed with ethanol and distilled water
repeatedly. It was then subjected to annealing at 110 0C for 24 hours and finally
sintered at temperature 700 0C for 5 hours. The characterization is to be done with
XRD.

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Procedure : 1

Name Mol.wt Morality Volume of

solution
Copper sulphate
249.68 g/mol 2.49 g 50 ml
(Blue)
Ferric Nitrate
404 g/mol 2.70 g 100 ml
(Redish)
25% NH3 NH3 = 17.03
---- ----
(Colourless) H2O = 18.015

Fig. Reference Rupali Gangopadhyayhttps://doi.org/10.1002/app.38218

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 Flow Chart
1% SDS addition
Cu-salt + Fe-salt Mixture stirred with

(1 : 2 )Precurssors Magnetic stirrer for 60 min

NaOH/NH4OH is added 1 ml/min for 120 min

PH = 8-10

Digestion of precipitate at 60-80 oC for 1h

Filter

Washing precipitate by hot water & ethanol

Annealing @ 1100C

Reddish-Brown powder

Sintering at 700 0C for 5 hours

Final Product

Characterization by X-Ray & SEM

Figure: Flow diagram of surfactant assisted Co-precipitation synthesis

method

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2.2 Synthesis of Copper ferrite through different route
S. A. Jasimet. al. [9] has worked to observe the behaviour of Copper ferrite
magnetic nanostructures had lowtoxicity at a concentration of 250 µg/mL.In this
study, magnetic spinel copper ferrite (CuFe2O4) nanostructures were eco-friendly
synthesized using Nasturtium officinaleextract.CuFe2O4 nanostructures with
spherical surface morphologiesnanostructures can be considered as suitable
candidates for drug delivery and other biomedical applications, because of their
low toxicity effects. K. H. Kahkeshet.al has worked on synthesis of high corecivity
of copper ferrite by co-precipitation method. In this work, Copperferrite was
synthesized by proper control on the circumstances during the ferrite formation in
aqueous phase. The effect on crystal growth was resulted in improvement of
corecivity value from 237 Oe, with no control of flow-rate, up to 1337 Oe, with
controlled flow rate [10].
Smitha Bhaskaran et.al has worked on synthesis of cobalt substituted copper
ferrite nanoparticles prepared by a modified sol-gel method. In his work, using Fe,
Cu and Co nitrates as precursors, citric acid (C6H8O7) and ammonia as a precipitant
of manufacturing of Copper cobalt ferrite ultrafine and pure particles was
successfully done. With suitable heat treatment it is possible to control the textural
and magnetic characteristics of Copper cobalt ferrite as desired. It is confirmed
from XRD analysis that the samples prepared by this route exhibit cubic structure
with crystallite size in the range 12–32 nm. The saturation magnetization of the
samples shows an increasing pattern with the concentration of cobalt.

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Photograph:

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Result :

The SDS surfactant assistedcopper ferrite nanoparticles has been

successfully synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method.The particle size of
copper ferrite nanoparticles in the range of 35nm to 78 nm

Conclusion : -
From the experiments it was concluded that :
1. Copper ferrite prepared from different procedure showed different
morphology and particle size.
2. The magnetic corecivity value decreased with the increase in calcinations
temperature and also with the sintering temperature.

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