Investigation of Effect of Surfactant on Characteristics of Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

In this study, Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized via chemical co-precipitation method and effect of lauric acid concentration on particle size and magnetic properties of these nanoparticles were studied. To obtain Fe3O4 nanoparticles, ferric and ferrous chlorides were precipitated by adjusting the pH by ammonia at presence different concentrations of lauric acid dynamic laser diffraction (DLD) method was used for particle size distribution. Structure and morphology of particles were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Magnetic particles were measured by using alternative gradient force measurement (AGFM). XRD results showed that e-Fe2O3 can be present beside Fe3O4 phase as minor phase which is related to surfactant concentration and disappears in optimum concentration of surfactantexamined AGFM revealed that increasing concentrations of lauric acid, saturation magnetization is reduced. Moreover it was revealed that crystallite size various from 10 to 22 nm.