Chemical and physical characterizations of spinel ferrite nanoparticles containing Nd and B elements

We first succeeded in synthesizing ferrite nanoparticles containing Nd and B elements by a chemical route using a polyol process. The lattice constants of the ferrite nanoparticles were equivalent to 8.39Å of the lattice constant for Fe₃O₄ with the spinel structure in a bulk state independently of the size in diameter and composition (Fe:Nd:B). The size in diameter was actually dominated by the amount of ligands (oleic acid and oleylamine) coating the nanoparticles and easily tuned by changing refluxing-time under reaction. The spinel-structured ferrite nanoparticles containing Nd and B elements showed large coercivity as compared to Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with the spinel structure, which were prepared by the same chemical method. By doping Nd and B elements into the spinel structure of ferrite, magnetic anisotropy increased in comparison with Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. According to the analysis of magnetization curve using the modified Langevin function, the ferrite nanoparticles displayed the coexistence of superparamagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. The ferrite nanoparticles containing Nd and B elements exhibited magnetic core/shell structure on the basis of various magnetic properties. The interface effect between the superparamagnetic core and antiferromagnetic shell might enhance the effective magnetic anisotropy of the ferrite nanoparticles containing Nd and B elements.