Magnetic properties in BaFe12O19 nanoparticles prepared under a magnetic field

It was observed that the nanocrystallites of BaFe12O19 formed at 140 deg. C under a 0.25 T magnetic field exhibited a higher saturation magnetization (6.1 emu/g at room temperature) than that of the sample (1.1 emu/g) obtained under zero magnetic field. Both of the two approaches yielded plain-like particles with an average particle size of 12 nm. However, the Curie temperature (Tc), a direct measuring of the strength of superexchange interaction of Fe3+-O2--Fe3+, increased from 410 deg. C for the nanoparticles prepared without an external field applied to 452 deg. C for the particles formed under a 0.25 T magnetic field, which indicates that external magnetic fields can improve the occupancy of magnetic ions and then increase the superexchange interaction. This was confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance and Moessbauer spectrum analysis. The results present in this paper suggest that in addition to oxygen defects, surface non-magnetic layer and a fraction of finer particles in the superparamagnetic range, cation vacancies should be responsible for the decreasing of saturation magnetization in magnetic nanoparticles