Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society (2021) 57:543–553

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41779-020-00556-z

RESEARCH

Investigation of structural, optical, and magnetic properties of Co2+

ions substituted CuFe2O4 spinel ferrite nanoparticles prepared via
precipitation approach
Talaat M. Hammad 1 & S. Kuhn 2 & Ayman Abu Amsha 3 & R. Hempelmann 2

Received: 2 May 2020 / Revised: 24 November 2020 / Accepted: 10 December 2020 / Published online: 14 January 2021
# Australian Ceramic Society 2021

Abstract
Nanoparticles of undoped and cobalt-doped copper ferrite Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) were successfully
synthesized by a co-precipitation method. The influence of Co2+ substitutions on the structure, morphological, optical, and
magnetic properties of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites was studied. The crystallite size found by XRD increased from ∼ 10 to∼
25 nm. The lattice parameter increased from 8.332 to 8.371 Å with increasing the Co2+ content. The FTIR spectra of Cu1-
−1
xCoxFe2O4 display two strong absorption bands in the range of 400–200 cm . The band gap energy of nanoferrites is found to
2+
decrease from 3.65 to 3.20 eV with an increase in the content of Co ions. It has been observed that the luminescence intensity
decreases in copper ferrite matrices with an increase in the ratio of Co2+. The results show the magnetic properties of copper
ferrite are significantly affected by the doping amount of Co2+ ions. The saturation magnetization increases with increasing cobalt
ion concentration as indicated in the M-H loops.

Keywords Optical properties . Magnetic properties . Cobalt Nano ferrites . Co-precipitation

Introduction biomedical applications [3, 4]. Spinel ferrite nanoparticles

MFe2O4 (where M(II) = Fe(II), Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II)) are cur-
Magnetic nanoparticles of transition metal ferrites having a rently used for contrast enhancements in magnetic storage
spinel structure are of great important for biomedical, environ- systems, photomagnetic materials, and magnetic resonance
mental, and industrial applications. Since of their excellent imaging (MRI) for drug delivery and hyperthermia specifical-
properties such as high saturation magnetization, high coer- ly [5–8]. The composition of the ferrites depends on the chem-
civity, strong chemical stability, and mechanical hardness [1], ical identity of the divalent metal (MII), as well as the size and
these nanoparticles are a good choice for different applica- distribution of the metal ions in the spinel structure’s tetrahe-
tions. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) dral and octahedral sites [9, 10]. MFe2O4 is the general for-
and their dispersions are of great interest in recent science of mula for spinel ferrites where M is a divalent metal ion and Fe
materials, particularly in the biomedical sciences [2]. Super- is in the +3 oxidation state [11–14]. Usually, there are two
paramagnetic crystals with a nanometer scale and high satu- types of spinel ferrite structures: the normal and the reverse,
ration magnetization are emerging as important candidates for but most spinel ferrites are inverse [15, 16]. The occupied
tetrahedral sites, in the normal spinel, contain the ions M2+
while the ions Fe3+ are in the occupied octahedral sites [17,
* Talaat M. Hammad 18]. Nonetheless, all M2+ ions and half of the Fe3+ ions are
[email protected] found in the occupied octahedral sites; however, the other half
of the Fe3+ ions occupied at the tetrahedral sites. Cobalt ferrite,
1
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, CoFe2O4, is considered a ferrimagnetic inverse spinel ferrites.
P.O. Box 1277, Gaza, Palestine CoFe2O4, occurs in an inverse spinel structure and the metal
2
Department of Physical Chemistry, Saarland University, cations tetragonally or octahedrally surrounded by oxygen
66123 Saarbrucken, Germany [19]. In addition, CuFe2O4 crystallizes in an inverse spinel
3
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, structure with Cu2+ ions in distorted octahedral and Fe3+ being
P.O. Box 1277, Gaza, Palestine similarly distributed in tetrahedral and octahedral sites,
544 J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553

although the magnetic moment and ionic radius of Cu2+ are technique. Nevertheless, there is no comprehensive study
different from Co2+ ions [20, 21]. The introduction of Co in done on the optical and magnetic properties of Cu 1-
CuFe2O4 can produce distorted spinel structures depending xCoxFe2 O 4 nanoferrites. In our present work, Co doped
upon the concentration of the precursor solutions. Since the copper ferrite nanoparticles with composition.
magnetic properties and ionic radius of Cu2+ (3d9) are differ- Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) have been
ent from Co2+ (3d7), some improvements in the magnetic and synthesized using precipitation method. The influence of co-
structural properties of mixed ferrites were anticipated upon balt ion substitution on the structural, magnetic, and optical
substitution of Co in CuFe2O4. The magnetic properties of properties of copper ferrite nanoparticles has been explored.
copper ferrite nanoparticles should be improved due to high
anisotropy (Ka = 3 × 105 J m−3), a high saturation magnetiza-
tion, and coercivity of CoFe2O4 ferrite [21]. Experimental
Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles are considered a
good candidate for potential applications such as pharma- Materials and methods
ceutical drug delivery and microwave, switching, and
memory devices [22, 23]. Many techniques [6, 23–28] Nanoferrites having the general formula Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x =
were used to prepare the mixed copper-cobalt ferrites. 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) were synthesized by precipitation
Such techniques include the microwave-assisted sol–gel technique [48]. Figure 1 shows the synthesis scheme for nano-
[29], co-precipitation [24, 27], sol–gel [22, 23], ceramic particles production. Preferred stoichiometric percentage
[26], microemulsion [28], and soft chemistry methods quantities of high purity cobalt sulfate monohydrate, CoSO4
[30]. Co-precipitation was preferred among all of these 7H2O; copper sulfate pentahydrate CuSO4.5H2O; and ferrous
methods. The co-precipitation method showed to be the ammonium sulfate hexahydrate, (NH4)2Fe(SO4)2.6H2O were
most effective appropriate system for Cu-Co nanoferrites subsequently dissolved in 25 mL of deionized water. The
preparation [31]. Compared to other approaches, it offers reaction mixtures were stirred vigorously and continuously
many advantages such as better distribution of the constit- for 60 min using magnetic stirring. Twenty millimoles of
uents in the resulting ferrites, low operating temperature, oxalic acid dissolved in an equal extent of deionized water
low cost, and good control of stoichiometry [27, 32]. and dropwise introduced to metal salts answer beneath mag-
Several studies [22, 24, 33] recorded high levels of substi- netic stirring for 60 min. The collected precipitates are washed
tution, where a rise in Cu content in CoFe2O4 resulted in a a number of times followed by drying at 373 K in an oven.
reduction in the magnetization. For example, Jnaneshwara The dried precipitates are milled to powdered form using mor-
et al. [22] prepared Co1-xCuxFe2O4 by using the solution tar and pestle. The crushed powder is sintered at 500 °C for 3 h
combustion process and stated that the magnetization re- in muffle furnace to form the nanostructure of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4.
duced from 38.5 to 26.7 emug−1 as the concentration of
Cu2+ increased. On the other hand, Balavijayalakshmi Characterization
et al. [24] prepared Co1-xCuxFe2O4 nanoparticles with a
coprecipitation method followed by sintering at 900 °C, The UV-vis absorption spectroscopy (Hewlett Packard 8453)
while Samavati et al. [33] obtained the same material by was employed for the determination of optical absorption
using the method at 800 °C. Their findings showed that the properties and band gap energy. Photoluminescent properties
saturation magnetization (M s) decreased from 72.06 to of nanoferrites were examined using a spectrofluorometer
21.11 emug−1 when concentrations of copper increased, Perkin-Elmer LS 50B at a wavelength range of 240–
although a little work done on Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 ferrites is 700 cm−1, with excitation wavelength at 400 nm. The mor-
reported in literature. Tailhades et al. [34] prepared Cu1- phological studies of prepared nanoparticles were investigated
xCoxFe2O4 spinel ferrites from oxalate precursors were in- via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) by a Tecnai
vestigated by different techniques to link the coercivity F300. X-ray diffractometer XDS 2000, Scintac Inc., USA
with structure. However, Imran et al. prepared Cu 1- equipped with CuKα radiation of wavelength (λ =
xCoxFe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles by sol–gel process [35], 1.5406 Å) was used to characterize the crystal structure. The
and he found the obtained samples are spinel cubic struc- mean particle sizes of these samples were calculated using
ture with particle size varied from 14.8 to 34.0 nm. Their Scherrer formula from the line width of the most intense and
findings showed that with increased cobalt content, the well-resolved diffraction peaks. FT-IR (Frontier (Perkin
saturation magnetization (M s ) and coercivity (H c ) in- Elmer)) spectrophotometer in frequency range of 400–
creased. In our previous studies, we documented [36] the 200 cm−1 was used for the chemical analysis to confirm the
impact of zinc substituted on the structural, morphological, chemical bonds present in the sample. A Superconductive
optical, and magnetic properties of copper ferrite nanopar- Quantum Interferometer System (SQUID) Quantum Model
ticles organized with the aid of co-precipitation chemical MPMS XL-7 magnetometer in RSO mode was used for
J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553 545

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the

simple experimental process Ferrous ammonium sulfate hexahydrate + Copper sulfate pentahydrate+ Cobalt
sulfate monohydrate + Deionized water

Oxalic acid+ deionized water

Slow Addion

Precipitate formaon

Srring for 2 hr and drying at

100oC for one day in air

(Cu, Co, Fe) Oxalate

Grinding to fine powder

Calcinaon for 2hr at 500oC in air

(Cu1-xCoxFe2O4)
FTIR XRD
Powder

TEM SQUID

magnetic characterization. The magnetic hysteresis loop was

measured in the range of − 30 KOe < H < 30 KOe at room a2 ¼ d 2 h2 þ k 2 þ l 2 ð1Þ
temperature.
It is observed that the unit cell parameters of the Co
substituted copper ferrite linearly increases with increasing
Results and discussion with concentration of Co2+ ions in the composition, obeying
Vegard’s law [28] and is shown in Fig. 3. The ionic radii of
Structural analysis Co2+ (0.82 Ǻ) is larger than that of Cu2+ ion (0.73°A), and
thus cause the lattice constant to decrease effectively [37]. The
XRD patterns of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 are displayed in Fig. 2. From values of lattice constant for Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 are found to be in
both samples, the XRD spectra show diffraction peaks (2θ) at close agreement with those reported by Imran et al. [35]. The
angles of 29.8°, 35.46°, 43.74°, 53.86°, 56.77°, and 62.32° average crystallite size of the samples is calculated from the
can be attributed to the reflections of (220), (311), (400), diffraction peak of the (311) plane in the XRD profile, in
(422), (511), and (440) planes, respectively. The observed accordance with Debye-Scherrer equation [38] as
diffraction peaks show that these nanoparticles have a
single-phase cubic spinel structure. Estimation of lattice pa- 1 ðB cos θÞ
¼ ð2Þ
rameters for nanoferrite is a vital study, which appreciably D Kλ
confirms the ideal metal ion doping within the lattice of spinel
where Dis the average crystallite size, K is approximately
ferrite nanoparticles. The lattice constant, (a), is calculated
equal to 0.9, B is the line broadening at half the maximum
using following relations [23] and depicted in Table 1

Table 1 Lattice constant and

particle size of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 Composition 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Lattice constant (Ǻ) ± 0.002 8.332 8.339 8.346 8.352 8.363 8.371
Particle size (nm) ± 0.01 10 13.5 16.7 18.5 21 25
546 J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553

(311)

(440)
(511)
(220)

(400)

(422)
x = 0.0 x=0.0

x = 0.2 x=0.2

Transmittance %
Intensity (a.u.)

x = 0.4 x=0.4

x=0.6
x = 0.6
x=0.8
x = 0.8 x=1.0

x =1.0

2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400

20 30 40 50 60 70
-1
2 (Degrees) Wave number (cm )

Fig. 2 XRD analysis of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites Fig. 4 FT-IR spectra of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and
1.0) nanoferrites

intensity, and λ is the X-ray wavelength. Sharpness at the peak

was attributed to larger average size of crystallite. The calcu- 2000 cm−1. The metal cations in ferrite are found in two sep-
lated crystallite size of samples found to be in the range 10– arate sub-lattices, namely tetrahedral (A-sites) and octahedral
25 nm, which are listed in Table 1. Figure 3 shows the varia- (B-sites) according to the spatial arrangement of the closest
tion of average crystallite size with the cobalt concentration. neighbors to the oxygen ion. The band ν1 around 542 cm−1 is
The average crystallite size is increased by increasing the Co assigned to stretching vibrations of tetrahedral complexes and
ions in the copper nanoferrites. ν2 around 454 cm−1 to that of octahedral complexes [40]. The
IR spectra (Fig. 7) show the presence of two-absorption bands
FT-IR analysis ν1 at 540 to 555 cm−1 and ν2 at 452–470 cm−1. Such bands’
locations indicate the presence of Cu2+ ions in octahedral sites,
FTIR technique allows to detect structural changes in and Fe3+ ions in tetrahedral sites [41]. It is found that the rise
the molecular binding between micro-organisms and in Co2+ ion concentration, the band switches to the higher
metal atoms that can provide details on the existence frequencies. Similar findings are observed in Cu ferrite re-
of their interactions. [39]. placed with nickel [42] and Cu–Zn ferrites substituted with
Figure 4 displays the FTIR spectra of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = nickel [43, 44].
0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) ferrite system within the range 400–

Transmission electron microscopy studies

26

24 8.37
Morphology and histograms of the Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0, 0.2,
22
0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) nanoferrite are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
8.36 Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of Cu-Co sam-
Particle size (nm)

20
ples (Fig. 5a–f) show that all samples exhibit as spherical shaped
18 particles in agglomeration. Figure 5a shows the existence of pure
8.35
CuFe2O4 nanoparticles, and Fig. 5b–f displays the images of
a (Å )

16
the Co-doped CuFe2O4 nanoparticles, but having ag-
14 8.34 glomeration to some extent, due to the relative higher
12
annealing temperature and interaction between magnetic
8.33
particles. The agglomeration is due to the Van der
10 Waals force between the particles [45]. Figure 6a–f rep-
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 resents the histograms of the samples and their average
Cobalt content (x) particle size ranging from 10 to 27.8 nm for Co-doped
Fig. 3 Variation of particle size and Lattice parameter as a function of Co CuFe2O4 samples. The sizes agree well with sizes of
content crystallite obtained from XRD data.
J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553 547

Fig. 5 TEM micrographs of Cu1-

xCoxFe2O4 a x = 0.0, b x = 0.2, c
x = 0.4, d x = 0.6, e x = 0.8, and f
x = 1.0

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis 8. The optical band gap energy (Eg) for prepared nanoferrites
which was calculated from the extrapolation of linear part of
Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy is an analytical Tauc’s relation is given [46] as:
instrument used to determine the sample composition. The
1=2
elemental evaluation of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites had been A h v−Eg
h υ¼ ð3Þ
confirmed by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) evaluation, and α
therefore, the results are seen in Fig. 7a,f. The EDX spectrum
where α, h, ν, Eg, and A are the absorption coefficient,
just indicated the existence of iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), copper
Plank’s constant, light frequency, band gap, and propor-
(Cu), and oxygen (O), which proves the high purity of the
tionality constant, respectively. For the estimation of Eg
synthesized powders. EDX results were in an excellent match
for direct electronic transition in Cu 1 - x Co x Fe 2 O 4
with XRD data.
nanoferrites, (αhν)2 is plotted as a function of energy
(hν) in Fig. 9. The calculated values of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4
UV-vis absorption studies
band gap energies were 3.65, 3.55, 3.51, 3.48, 3.42, and
3.2 eV, respectively (Fig. 9). It clearly shows that there
The UV-vis optical spectra of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites re-
is a decrease in the band gap of the Co-doped CuFe2O4
corded in the wavelength range 240–700 nm are shown in Fig.
548 J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553

Fig. 6 Histograms of Cu1-

xCoxFe2O4 a x = 0.0, b x = 0.2, c
a b
x = 0.4, d x = 0.6, e x = 0.8, and f
x = 1.0

c d

e f

samples compared to the pure CuFe2O4. The UV-vis and green emissions at 505, 506, 507, 508, 510, and
absorption spectrum reveals an excessive red shift in 512 nm respectively. The first peak is the blue emission,
band gap with increasing concentration of cobalt, which due to the radiative defects associated with the interface
is due to quantum size effects. It is noticed here that the traps existing at the grain boundaries [50, 51]. The second
band gap values were obtained considerably as the par- peak is assigned to the green emissions. The oxygen va-
ticle size increases. Dhiwahar et al. [47], Wang et al. cancies can be attributed to the green emission [52]. The
[48], and Chen et al. [49] observed the same effect. green emission peak is generally referred to as deep or
trap-state emission and single-ionized vacancy of oxygen
Photoluminescence studies [53]. This behavior can be due to the existence of new
electronic levels between the conductive band and the
Figure 10 displays the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of valence band, which may be due to increased intrinsic
Cu1- xCoxFe2O4 samples recorded at room temperature. defects. The emission characteristics in copper ferrites
The excitation was recorded at a wavelength 400 nm. are therefore regulated by the processes, which are influ-
The present study indicates two peaks corresponding to enced by defects. It is also found that Co doping in copper
blue emissions at 455, 456, 458, 460, 462, and 463 nm ferrite matrices increases the strength of the luminescence
J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553 549

a b

c d

e f

Fig. 7 EDX spectrum of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 a x = 0.0, b x = 0.2, c x = 0.4, d x = 0.6, e x = 0.8, and f x = 1.0

by increasing the x values. Despite the processes regulated Magnetic measurements

by defects in all the samples, the increase in luminescence
intensity is attributable to the increase in distance between In the present study, the magnetic properties of Cu 1-
the dopant (activator) and the array [53]. The disorder xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) were performed at
centers that serve as trap levels and role of Co2+ activators room temperature by using SQUID with a maximum field of
in enhancing the intensity of luminescence in the Cu1- + 30 kOe. The recorded hysteresis loops of the nanoferrites are
xCoxFe2O4 ferrites play a dominant role in the emission seen in Fig. 11. The various parameters like saturation mag-
processes. Vijaya et al. already published similar results netization (Ms), remanent (Mr), coercivity (Hc), (Mr/Ms), and
[54]. Adding Co2+ to copper ferrite reduces its particle magnetic moment (μB) were tabulated in Table 2. It is ob-
size as co-doping concentration rises, which can be ob- served that Ms and Mr increase with an increase in the copper
served in PL spectra by a red shift. substitution. As observed from Table 2, it is possible to
550 J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553

600
x= 0.0
x= 0.2 x=1.0
x= 0.4 x=0.8
500
x= 0.6 x=0.6
x= 0.8 x=0.4
Absorption (a.u.)

x=1.0 x=0.2

PL intensity
400
x=0.0

300

200

100

420 450 480 510 540 570 600

240 270 300 330 360 390 420 450 480 510 540 570 600
Wavelength (nm)

Wavelength (nm) Fig. 10 Photoluminescence spectra of of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2,

0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0) system
Fig. 8 UV-vis spectra of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1)

observe that the Ms increases from 35.5 to 54.6 emug−1 as x resulting in an overall increasing in the magnetic moment of
increases from 0 to 1.0 (see Fig. 12). The magnetization var- the Co2+ ion doping samples [57]. Similar results for doped
iation with Co content is very well in agreement with the one copper ferrite were also reported recently [35]. It is evident
reported by Amran et al. [35] on Cu-Co ferrite prepared by from the results presented in Table 2 that the coercivity (Hc)
sol-gel method. The increase in Ms with Co2+ content can be significantly decreased from 1344 to 760 Oe for the samples
clarified by the possible replacement of Cu2+ by Co2+ at the CuFe2O4 and CoFe2O4, respectively (see Fig. 12). The de-
tetrahedral sites of the spinel ferrite lattice. These found trends crease in coercivity with rise in cobalt concentration may be
in the variant of Ms can be justified by means of Neel’s two due to a decrease in anisotropy field, which in turn decreases
sub-lattice magnetization model [28, 55, 56]. This model is energy of the domain wall. This, in turn, is answerable for the
based on, magnetization (in μB) is given by means of M excessive magneto-crystalline anisotropy of cobalt ferrite, in
(μB) = MB − MA, where MA and MB are the net magnetic which the coercivity is associated with the anisotropy constant
moments of A (tetrahedral) and B (octahedral) sites, respec- via the relation Hc = 2 K/μoMs [28]. The excessive magnetic
tively. The increase in the saturation magnetization was due to anisotropy of Co2+ ions increases the anisotropy constant of
that the magnetic moment of Co2+ (3 μB) is higher than Cu2+ Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites [58, 59]. Amran et al. [35] report-
(1 μB). Therefore, the magnetic moment in the B-sub lattice ed that the coercivity will increases with increasing the doping
was sequentially increased with an increase in cobalt doping concentration of Co2+. However, Briceño et al. [60] have re-
ported opposite trends, which are agreed with our present
observation. It can be therefore be inferred that there is some
link between the magnetic properties and the Cu1-xCoxFe2O4
system’s structural performance. Co doping increases the lat-
tice parameter from 8.332 to 8.371 Å, resulting in the expan-
sion of the unit cell volume and increases the inter-atomic
distances among the divalent and trivalent ions, affecting the
magnetic properties successively. By using the following re-
lationship to calculate the magnetic moment of each formula
in Bohr magnetron units (μB) ηB of the experimental value
[61] and is represented in Table 2.
M  Ms
ηB ¼ ð4Þ
5585
where the molecular weight is denoted by “M” and saturation
magnetization by “Ms.” The increase in ηB values resulting
from the strength of the super-exchange interactions among
Fig. 9 Energy gap spectra of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrite
the various sites led to an increase in the ηB values. In our case,
J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553 551

70 1400
Table 2 The values of magnetic parameters, Ms, Mr, Hc, Mr/Ms, and ηB
of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoparticles at x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.0 65
1300
X Saturation Remanent Coercivity Mr/ Magnetic 60
magnetization magnetization Hc (Oe) Ms moment ηB 1200

Coercivity (Oe)
Ms (emu/g) Mr (emu/g) (μB) 55

Ms(emu/g)
0 35.5 20.3 1344 0.57 1.52 50 1100

0.2 40.2 21 1151 0.52 1.72 45

1000
0.4 44.6 22.3 1000 0.50 1.91
40
0.6 45.2 23.1 915 0.51 1.94
900
0.8 48.6 24.5 880 0.50 2.1 35
1.0 54.6 25.4 760 0.47 2.34
30 800
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

cobalt content (x)

ηB was found to increase with increasing Co2+ content (see
Fig. 12 Saturation magnetization Ms and coercivity Hc versus copper
Fig. 13, which is agreed with the observed increase in the
content x in Cu1-xCoxFe2O4
saturation magnetization. Table 2 presents the measured
values of the magnetron number μB. The pattern of μB values
Conclusion
is given to increase against x, which can relate to an increase of
x in MS. Moreover, the ratio between Mr and Ms (Mr/Ms) also
Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 nanoferrites were synthesized by using a co-
decreased with an increase in Co content. The values of Mr/Ms
precipitation method to study the effect of cobalt substitution
for Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 ferrites ranging from 0.57 to 0.47 are seen
in altering the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of
in Table 2. These values are lower than the standard value of
copper ferrites. The nanoparticles size estimated by TEM is
“1.0” predicted for single domain ferromagnetic samples. The
consistent with the size measured by XRD method which is
observed variance from unity (1) may be due to the interac-
found to be ∼ 25 nm for CoFe2O4 and ∼ 10 nm for CuFe2O4.
tions among the grains that may be caused by the distribution
All samples have cubic spinel structure. The lattice constant
of grain size in the material [62, 63]. All the findings obtained
increases with increasing in cobalt concentration due to the
in this work from the materials’ magnetic measurement mate-
substitution of Co2+ of larger cation radius, though particle
rials (Cu1-xCoxFe2O4) suggest that they are ferromagnetic due
size varies in significantly. With the increase of Co2+ ion,
to the samples which have a spontaneous magnetization in the
the band gap energy of nanoferrites decreases from 3.65 to
absence of an applied magnetic field. Consequently, this
3.20 eV. It has been observed that the luminescence intensity
makes them ideal candidates for various applications, such
increases in copper ferrite matrices with an increase in the ratio
as biomedicine and microwave.
of Co2+. Saturation magnetization and remanent magnetiza-
tion are gradually increased when Co2+ substitutes Cu2+. The

26

60 x=0.0
Remanent magnetization (emu/g)

x=0.2 25
x=0.4
40
Magnetisation Ms(emu/g)

x=0.6
24
x=0.8
20 x=1.0
23
0

22
-20

-40
21

-60 20

-30000 -20000 -10000 0 10000 20000 30000 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
H (Oe) Cobalt content x)
Fig. 11 Magnetic hysteresis loops of Cu1-xCoxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, Fig. 13 Remanent magnetization versus cobalt content x in Cu1-
0.6, and 0.8) system xCoxFe2O4
552 J Aust Ceram Soc (2021) 57:543–553

outcomes for the obtained modification and tunable magnetic 21. Hashim, M., Shirsath, S.E.: Meena, Study of structural and mag-
netic properties of (Co–Cu)Fe2O4/PANI composites. Mater. Chem.
properties of the synthesized nanoparticles may be recom-
Phys. 141, 406–415 (2013)
mended for future applications. 22. Jnaneshwara, D.M., Avadhani, D.N., Daruka Prasad, B.,
Nagabhushana, H., Nagabhushana, B.M., Sharma, S.C.,
Prashantha, S.C., Shivakumara, C.: Spectrochim. Acta, Part A.
132, 256–262 (2014)
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