Examination of the magnetic hyperthermia and other magnetic properties of CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 nanoparticles using external field Mössbauer spectroscopy

CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 core/shell nanoparticles were synthesized by high temperature thermal decomposition with seed-mediated growth. The crystal structure and magnetic properties of the nanoparticles were investigated using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and Mössbauer spectrometry. The magnetic hyperthermia properties were investigated using a MagneTherm device. Analysis of the XRD patterns showed that CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 had a cubic spinel crystal structure with space group Fd-3m and a lattice constant (a0) of 8.3686 Å. The size and morphology of the CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 nanoparticles were confirmed by HR-TEM. The VSM measurements showed that the saturation magnetization (MS) of CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 was 77.9 emu/g. The self-heating temperature of CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 was 37.8 °C at 112 kHz and 250 Oe. The CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 core/shell nanoparticles showed the largest saturation magnetization value, while their magnetic hyperthermia properties were between those of the CoFe2O4 and MgFe2O4 nanoparticles. In order to investigate the hyperfine interactions of CoFe2O4, MgFe2O4, and CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4, we performed Mössbauer spectrometry at various temperatures. In addition, Mössbauer spectrometry of CoFe2O4@MgFe2O4 was performed at 4.2 K with applied fields of 0–4.5 T, and the results were analyzed with sextets for the tetrahedral A-site and sextets for the octahedral B-site.