Effect of surfactants (PVB/EDTA/CTAB) assisted sol-gel synthesis on structural, magnetic and dielectric properties of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles

Nanocrystalline NiFe2O4 was synthesized by sol-gel route using various surfactants such as PVP, EDTA and CTAB. The effect of different surfactants on structure, magnetic and dielectric properties of the NiFe2O4 nano-particles (NPs) were investigated. The prepared samples were inspected by XRD, HRSEM, and TEM. Powder XRD studies confirmed the realization of single crystalline cubic structure of the NiFe2O4 nanoferrites. The addition of surfactants significantly modified the crystallite size of the final products. Dielectric features of NiFe2O4 NPs were slightly modified with different surfactants. The magnetic results revealed an enormous decrease in coercivity and a moderate reduction in the saturation magnetization when EDTA and CTAB were used as compared to PVP. The present results declare that the adding of various surfactants in the sample preparation controls the size of NiFe2O4 NPs and thus noticeably influences the magnetic parameters.