Alcohol dependent production of Fe3O4 and CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

Commonly available alcohols of varying lengths and degree of branching were used to synthesize iron oxide, Fe3O4, and cobalt iron oxide, CoFe2O4, nanoparticles by means of a simple solvothermal decomposition of iron (III) acetylacetonates and cobalt (II) acetylacetonates. Depending on the solvent employed resulting Fe3O4 and CoFe2O4 nanoparticles ranged in size from approximately 5-16 nm and approximately 4-8 nm, respectively. All alcohols utilized resulted in the formation of nanoparticles with a spinel crystal structure, with the exception of methanol. Use of tert-butanol and phenol resulted in nearly spherical agglomerations of individual nanoparticles ranging between 100-250 nm. The resulting structures and morphologies of all samples were confirmed by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Mass specific moments are reported based on SQUID magnetometry, and ranged from 57.5(5)-76.4(3) emu/g for Fe3O4 and 47.7(7)-67.0(4) emu/g CoFe2O4.