Preparation and reversible phase transfer of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this paper, we present a chemical co-precipitation approach in aqueous solution to prepare a highly crystalline monodispersed CoFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles coated with oleic acid. These products can be transferred into organic solvent by adjusting to pH 5 under the effect of HCl and re-transferred into water phase from organic phase completely under the effect of (CH3CH2)(3)N by adjusting the added amount into the water phase. X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectra were used to characterize these nanoparticles and their reversible phase transfer. The properties of the reversible phase transfer imply the novel CoFe2O4 products have great potential applications in nanotechnology.