Composition dependent magnetic properties of iron oxide-polyaniline nanoclusters

摘要

γ-Fe_2O_3 prepared by sol gel process was used to produce nanocomposites with polyaniline of varying aniline concentrations. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows the presence of chain like structure for lower polyaniline concentration. The room temperature hysteresis curves show finite coercivity of ～160 Oe for all the composites, while the saturation magnetization was found to decrease with increasing polymer content. Zero field cooled-field cooled magnetization measurements indicate high blocking temperatures. It is believed that this indicates a strongly interacting system, which is also shown by our TEM results. Monte Carlo simulations performed on a random anisotropy model with dipolar and exchange interactions match well with experimental results.