Synthesis and characterization of magnetic Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4/polyvinyl acetate (PVAC) nanocomposite

The magnetic Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles were expected to have wide applications in bionanoscience and electronic devices technology. In this work, Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized successfully by a redox chemical reaction in an aqueous solution of nickel chloride, zinc chloride and ferric chloride. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the shape, structure and size of the synthesized magnetic nanoparticles. The magnetic properties of Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles were studied using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The XRD patterns of the synthesized nanoparticles revealed the formation of the single phase spinel structure of the synthesized materials. The synthesized Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles were used for the preparation of Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4/polyvinyl acetate (PVAC) nanocomposites by an in situ emulsion polymerization method. The synthesized Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles exhibited superparamagnetic behavior at the room temperature under an applied magnetic field. Magnetization measurements indicated that the saturation magnetization of synthesized Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4/PVAc nanocomposites was markedly less than that of Ni0.3Zn0.7Fe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles.