Synthesis and magnetic characterization of MCM-41/CoFe2O4 nano-composite

In this paper, synthesis and magnetic characterization of MCM-41-supported CoFe2O4 as a magnetic nano-composite has been investigated by incorporating the cobalt ferrite phase in meso-porous MCM-41 matrix by modified impregnation method. MCM-41 channels act as nano-reactor and cobalt ferrite nano-arrays were synthesized in its channels using the polymerizable complex (PC) route. Phase composition, morphology and magnetic properties of the products were investigated by XRD, TEM/EDS and VSM techniques, respectively. TEM image of annealed MCM-41 indicated hexagonally meso-structure with mean pore size of 4 nm. Saturation magnetization and coercivity of CoFe2O4 dropped from 78.6 emu/g and 0.75 kOe, respectively to 0.6 emu/g and 0.4 kOe for MCM-41-supported CoFe2O4. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.