Polyaniline/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites: A novel synthesis, characterization and magnetic properties

A conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI)/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites were synthesized by facial in situ polymerization of aniline monomer with CoFe2O4 nanoparticles, where CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared via a simple one step citrate–nitrate method. The structural, morphology and magnetic properties of the resulting nanocomposites were investigated in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and magnetic measurements. The average particle size of the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles was measured to be 19 nm. The magnetic properties of all the composites were measured using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) in the temperature range 300–10 K up to 30 kOe magnetic field. The magnetic properties of PANI/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites were improved by adding the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles, the variation in the saturation of magnetization (MS), remanent magnetization (MR) and coercivity (HC) for PANI/CoFe2O4 nanocomposites facilitated the production of composite materials with considerable properties and found to be affected dramatically with cobalt ferrite addition.