One-pot synthesis of stable colloidal solutions of MFe2O4 nanoparticles using oleylamine as solvent and stabilizer

• Published in: Materials research bulletin Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 966 - 972
• Main Authors: Pérez-Mirabet, Leonardo, Solano, Eduardo, Martínez-Julián, Fernando, Guzmán, Roger, Arbiol, Jordi, Puig, Teresa, Obradors, Xavier, Pomar, Alberto, Yáñez, Ramón, Ros, Josep, Ricart, Susagna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2013
• Subjects: A. Nanostructures; A. Oxides; B. Chemical synthesis; D. Magnetic properties; B. Chemical synthesis; A. Nanostructures; D. Magnetic properties; A. Oxides
• ISSN: 0025-5408; 1873-4227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.materresbull.2012.11.086

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► One-pot synthesis of ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (<10nm) in non-polar media. ► Nanoparticles present high monocrystal quality and monodispersion. ► Superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature. ► Nanoparticles transfer to polar media via ligand exchange.
An easy, efficient, reproducible and scalable one-pot synthetic methodology to obtain magnetic spinel ferrite nanoparticles has been developed. This approach is based on one-pot thermal decomposition of Fe(acac)3 and M(acac)2 (M=Co, Mn, Cu and Zn) in oleylamine, which also acts as a capping ligand, by producing stable colloidal dispersions of nanoparticles in non-polar solvents.
The properties of the nanoparticles have been studied via different techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy, which shows that nanoparticles are monocrystallines and a narrow dispersion in size; magnetic analyses have demonstrated that the resulting ferrite nanoparticles show high saturation values and superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature; X-ray diffraction has also been performed, and it confirms that the synthesized nanoparticles have a spinel structure.
Complementarily, ligand exchange has been also carried out in order to produce dispersions of the synthesized nanoparticles in polar media.