PNNL

Abstract

While transition metal-doped ferrite nanoparticles constitute an important class of soft magnetic nanomaterials with spinel structures, the ability to control the shape and composition would enable a wide range of applications in homogeneous or heterogeneous reactions such as catalysis and magnetic separation of biomolecules. This report describes novel findings of an investigation of core-shell structured MnZn ferrite nanocubes synthesized in organic solvents by manipulating the reaction temperature and capping agent composition in the absence of the conventionally-used reducing agents. The core-shell structure of the highly-monodispersed nanocubes (~20 nm) are shown to consist of an Fe3O4 core and an (Mn0.5Zn0.5)(Fe0.9, Mn1.1)O4 shell. In comparison with Fe3O4 and other binary ferrite nanoparticles, the core-shell structured nanocubes were shown to display magnetic properties regulated by a combination of the core-shell composition, leading to a higher coercivity (~350 Oe) and field-cool/zero-field-cool characteristics drastically different from many regular MnZn ferrite nanoparticles. The findings are discussed in terms of the unique core-shell composition, the understanding of which has important implication to the exploration of this class of soft magnetic nanomaterials in many potential applications such as magnetic resonance imaging, fuel cells, and batteries.