Spinel cobalt ferrite-based reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites: Synthesis, structural, morphological, optical and thermal analysis

Abstract

The study aims to synthesize a cobalt ferrite-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite. This study describes the hydrothermal production of a nanocomposite made of cobalt ferrite-reduced graphene oxide (CoFe2O4-RGO). The materials were characterized using a variety of analytical techniques to show that cobalt ferrite was successfully attached to RGO sheets. The cubic spinel structure of the produced CoFe2O4 nanomaterials resembles with the previous researches. The rise and fall of d-spacing of GO (7.78 Å) from graphite (3.25 Å) and to RGO (3.63 Å) indicates successful oxidation of graphite and reduction of GO. The XRD of CoFe2O4-RGO composite preserved the crystallinity of cubic spinel CoFe2O4 and showed the successful composite preparation. The uniform distribution of CoFe2O4 on RGO sheets were found in morphological examination. The presence of an M − O band of the cobalt ferrite in the FTIR spectra of CoFe2O4-RGO at 588 cm−1 and the corresponding decrease in peak intensity indicates the establishment of chemical connection between RGO and CoFe2O4. The ID/IG ratio of the CoFe2O4-RGO (1.15) composite has been increased from the ID/IG ratio of RGO (0.99). Comparatively higher ID/IG value at the CoFe2O4-RGO composite proves to have a good connection between RGO and CoFe2O4. The measured saturation magnetization (Ms) value of 24.11 emu/g proved the superparamagnetic behavior of CoFe2O4-RGO composite. Saturation magnetization, remanence magnetization and coercivity values were found to be reduced due to the addition of nonmagnetic RGO with CoFe2O4 from the hysteresis loop of CoFe2O4-RGO. The comparative weight loss of GO, CoFe2O4 and CoFe2O4-RGO due to the rise of temperature have been presented in thermogravimetric analysis curve. Thus, successful formation and finding potential physical characteristics of CoFe2O4-RGO composite were the novel aspect of the present work.