Influence of Silver Concentrations on Structural and Magnetic Properties of Ag-Fe₃O₄ Heterodimer Nanoparticles

In the present work, we have reported the effect of Ag NPs seeds on the growth and magnetic properties of Ag-Fe₃O₄ heterodimer nanoparticles prepared using a two step chemical approach. Three different Ag NPs concentrations have been tried and thoroughly characterized using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dc magnetization, and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). It is observed that at low concentration, the “flower” types of nanoparticles are more favorable whereas the higher concentration of Ag NPs seeds promotes the growth of dimer type of structures. Our dc magnetization results are well correlated to the structural ones. The sample with lower amount of starting Ag NPs seeds possesses highest blocking and irreversibility temperature. On the other hand, the sample with highest concentration of Ag NPs seeds, the blocking temperature is lowered.