Synthesis and characterization of cobalt nano‐particles through microwave polyol process

This article aims to synthesize and character cobalt nano‐particles through microwave polyol process. At first, cobalt acetate is used as precursor to synthesize cobalt nano‐particles by microwave assisted ethylene glycol in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as capping agent. As measured from ion‐coupled plasma (ICP) and thermo‐gravimetric analysis (TGA), the yields of as‐synthesized cobalt particles in average diameters of 40 and 81 nm verified by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), are 71 and 85%, respectively; and the structure of as‐synthesized cobalt nano‐particle is a face‐center cubic structure analyzed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD). Finally, the as‐synthesized cobalt nano‐particle modified by oleic acid is dispersed in kerosene to character magnetic property. As measured by vibration sample magnetometer (VSM), the saturation magnetisms of cobalt nano‐particles with average diameters of 40 and 81 nm are 39.1 and 29.5 emu/g, respectively, in solution. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009