Structural and Magnetic Characterizations of Co2FeGa/SiO2 Nanoparticles Prepared via Chemical Route

Abstract

We report the synthesis of Co2FeGa/SiO2 nanoparticles by sol-gel method and characterization using x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and magnetic measurements. The Rietveld refinements of XRD data with space group Fm-3m clearly show the formation of A2 disorder single phase and the lattice constant is found to be 5.738 {\AA}. The energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirm the elemental composition close the desired values. The value of coercivity is found to be around 283 Oe and 126 Oe, measured at 10 K and 300 K, respectively. We observed the saturation magnetization significantly lower than expected from Slater-Pauling rule. This decrease in the magnetic moment might be due to the presence of amorphous SiO2 during the synthesis process. A large content of small size SiO2 particles along with Co2FeGa nanoparticles are also found in TEM study.