High saturation superparamagnetic properties of low-temperature sintering of nickel oxide

Application of nickel oxide as magnetic nanofluid become more interesting. This research aims to synthesized nickel oxide as magnetic material and analyzed its behaviour under low sintering temperature. This research used synthesized nickel oxide with sol-gel method heated at two temperature variations. The first sample heated at 220 degrees C until self-combustion process occurred; and the second sample heated at 80 degrees C until it turned into a gel, similar to the general sol-gel process. After that, all samples received sintering treatment at 400 degrees C. This research used XRD test resulted in peaks appearances in all samples, indicating all samples were single-phase samples. The first sample showed a crystallite structure size of 72.66 nm before sintering and 39.64 after sintering, whereas the second sample displayed a crystallite structure size of 48.46 nm before sintering and 62.28 nm after sintering. The SEM test result exhibited agglomerated particles and sphere morphology. The FTIR test results presented differences as-prepared sample of solgel method. The functional groups and bonds show broadening peak at O-H bond. Lastly, the VSM test results showed a soft magnetic material with superparamagnetic properties and has high saturation magnetic in the second sample.