This weakens the surface anisotropy and then reduces the resonance frequency. Figure 4 Effective complex permeability μ of the samples. (a) Spectra of the real part (μ’ eff). (b) Spectra of the imaginary part (μ” eff). In order to further identify this magnetic resonance, ESR measurement was performed. The results for the samples are displayed in Figure 5. It can be seen that all the samples show an obvious ferromagnetic resonance, and the resonance field is proportional to the sintering temperature. The particle diameter is directly proportional to the sintering temperature as can be seen from Figure 2. This behavior can be explained by the core-shell morphology of the NPs consisting

of ferrimagnetically aligned core spins and the surface in which part of the superexchange interaction is destroyed. The magnetic behavior of the NPs has a marked dependence Selleckchem ACP-196 on the particle size, and the surface effects start to dominate as the particle size decreases. g eff is the effective g-factor introduced by analogy with the Lande g-factor and calculated via g eff =

hν / μ B H r [34], where h is the Planck constant, ν is the microwave frequency, μ B is the Bohr magneton, and H r is the resonance field. Fe3+ ions usually exhibit two well-defined signals of g eff = 2.0 and 4.3; the signal of g eff = 4.3 has been ascribed to the isolated Fe3+ ions, while the signal of g eff = 2.0 has been assigned to the Fe3+-coupled pair (Fe3+-O-Fe3+) [35]; Ni2+ ions normally show g eff values of 2.2 and 2.0, corresponding to the Ni2+-coupled pair (Ni2+-O-Ni2+) and SB203580 purchase the isolated Ni2+ ions, respectively [36, 37]. The value of g eff characterizing polycrystalline check details NiFe2O4 is 2.4 as reported before [35]. As can be seen from Figure 5, g eff is gradually decreasing as the sintering temperature increases.

For S700, the ESR spectrum exhibits a large g eff of 3.19 corresponding to the low H r . This is because, first, there is a dipole interaction between the magnetic moments of the neighboring metal ions which destroys the superexchange interaction between them and leads to the strong surface anisotropy [14]. Second, the internal magnetic moment is coupled to the magnetic moment in the surface, and the sample shows a low H r , when the size of particles is small enough. In contrast, Thiamine-diphosphate kinase when the size of particles increases, the internal magnetic state becomes independent of the surface, owing to a finite exchange interaction length. Therefore, sample S1000 exhibits two resonance peaks. This is the further evidence of our previous inference. Figure 5 ESR spectra of samples. Conclusions In summary, NiFe2O4 NPs were obtained using the sol–gel method, and the magnetic properties of NiFe2O4 NPs regularly change with the sintering temperature. Notably, NiFe2O4 NPs exhibit magnetic resonance in the GHz range. Through the study of the surface composition, the presence of oxygen defects, which can destroy the superexchange interaction, in the surface can be deduced.