Functional Group and Magnetic Properties of Fe₃O₄ Ferrofluids: The Impact of Dispersion Agent Composition

This work was aimed to identify the functional group and magnetic properties of the Fe₃O₄ ferrofluids coated by oleic acid regarding different compositions of olive oil as a dispersing agent. The results of the x-ray diffraction (XRD) data presented that the phase of the samples was a Fe₃O₄ phase, which was identified based on the diffraction peaks with highest peak at 35.6° with the particle size of 8.8 nm. The results of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) characterization on the ferrofluids showed those functional groups representing the existence of magnetic and dispersing agent particles. Based on the data analysis of the magnetization data, the composition of the dispersing agent influenced the saturation magnetization with the highest value of approximately 18 emu/gram. Therefore, the prepared ferrofluids in this work open a potency to be applied in various fields, such as for an antibacterial agent.