Synthesis and characterization of sugar coated superparamagnetic Li0.1Fe2.9O4 nanoparticles.

Structural and magnetic properties of greenly synthesized sugar coated Li0.1Fe2.9O4 nanoparticles (LFO NPs) have been investigated. Formation of phase pure sugar coated ∼17nm sized LFO NPs in simple cubic symmetry is affirmed by PXRD, Raman and FTIR analysis. The difference in average crystallite size (∼17nm) and size of magnetic particle (∼15nm) also establishes the sugar coating on the LFO nanoparticles. S-shaped M-H curve fitted with Langevin function revealed that sugar-coated LFO NPs exhibits superparamagnetism with a high saturation magnetization of 72emu/g (∼2.93 µB/f.u.) at room temperature. Surface functionalization via sugar coating and excellent saturation magnetization makes LFO NPs suitable for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]