Synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties of KFeO2 nanoparticles prepared by a simple egg-white solution route
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Received:
3 July 2020
Revised: 8 September 2020
Accepted: 11 September 2020
Available online: 12 September 2020
Abstract: In this work, nanoparticles of potassium ferrite (KFeO2) were synthesized by a simple egg-white solution method upon calcination in air at different temperatures of 500, 600, and 700ºC for 2 h. The effects of calcination temperature on structural and magnetic properties of the synthesized KFeO2 nanoparticles were investigated. By varying the calcination temperature, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results indicated the changes of crystallinity and morphology including particle size, respectively. Significantly, the reduction of particle size of the synthesized KFeO2 was found to have a great influence on the magnetic properties. At room temperature, the synthesized KFeO2 nanoparticles prepared at 600ºC exhibited the highest saturation magnetization (MS) of 26.24 emu•g-1. In addition, the coercivity (HC) increased from 3.51 to 16.89 kA•m-1 with increasing calcination temperature up to 700ºC. The zero-field-cooled (ZFC) results showed that the blocking temperatures (TB) of about 125 and 85 K were observed in the samples calcined at 500 and 600ºC, respectively. Therefore, this work shows that the egg-white solution method is a simple, cost effective, and environmental-friendly for the preparation of KFeO2 nanoparticles.