Effect of chitosan coating on the structural and magnetic properties of MnFe2O4 and Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles

We report the influence of polymer coatings on structural and magnetic properties of MnFe2O4 and Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 nanoferrites synthesized by glycol thermal technique and then coated with chitosan viz. CHI-MnFe2O4 and CHI-Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4. The compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetization measurements. The powder XRD patterns of naked nanoferrites confirmed single-phase spinel cubic structure with an average crystallite size of 13 nm, while the coated samples exhibited an average particle size of 15 nm. We observed a reduction in lattice parameters with coating. HRTEM results correlated well with XRD results. 57Fe Mössbauer spectra showed ordered magnetic spin states in both nanoferrites. This study shows that coatings have significant effects on the structural and magnetic properties of Mn-nanoferrites. Magnetization studies performed at room temperature in fields up to 14 kOe revealed the superparamagnetic nature of both naked and coated nanoparticles with spontaneous magnetizations at room temperature of 49.2 emu/g for MnFe2O4, 23.6 emu/g for coated CHI–MnFe2O4 nanoparticles, 63.2 emu/g for Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 and 33.2 emu/g for coated CHI–Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles. We observed reduction in coercive fields due to coating. Overall, chitosan-coated manganese and manganese-cobalt nanoferrites present as suitable candidates for biomedical applications owing to physicochemical, and magnetic properties exhibited.