Preparation and physical characterization of cobalt iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles loaded polyvinyl alcohol

A solvent thermal method which depends on a thermal process under critical temperature and pressure was used to prepare cobalt iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles with a molar ratio 2. The prepared particles were in the form of nanoparticles with diameter ranging from 5 to 10 nm and with amorphous structure. Magnetic hysteresis behavior with saturation magnetization 36.31 emu/g and coercivity 4 Oe were observed for the nanoparticles. Polyvinyl alcohol was loaded with different concentrations of cobalt iron oxide nanoparticles using casting technique. Hysteresis loops for the polymer films were observed and both the saturation magnetization and coercivity were increased from 0.36 to 16.03 emu/g and 115 to 293 Oe for samples containing 5 and 20 wt% of nanoparticles, respectively. The elastic modulus of films was increased from 2.7 to 4.9 GPa for unloaded and loaded samples with 20 wt%, respectively. The storage modulus of the polymer films was found to obey the percolation behavior.