Electrochemical Synthesis and Characterization of Ni2+ Doped Magnetite Nanoparticles/graphene Oxide Nanocomposite: a Simple and Facile Approach to Prepare Superparamagnetic Composite

In this paper, Ni2 doped magnetite nanoparticles/graphene oxide composite are fabricated through an electrochemical synthesis procedure for the first time. The electrosynthesis procedure is based on the electrochemical growth of iron oxide nanoparticles onto the graphene oxide sheets electrophoretically deposited on the cathode electrode. An aqueous solution of iron nitrate nonahydrate (0.3 g), iron chloride tetrahydrate (0.1 g), nickel nitrate hexahydrate (0.1 g) and 0.03 g dispersed graphene oxide was used as the electrosynthesis bath. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the prepared composite revealed that it has magnetite crystal structure. The particle morphology, graphene oxide content and Ni2 cation doping were also confirmed through FE-SEM observations, EDS and FT-IR analyses. The superparamagnetic nature of the fabricated composite was determined from M-H curve and magnetic data obtained by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis. The NiFe3O4/GO composite showed magnetic data of Ms=47.03 emug–1, Mr=0.14 emug–1 and Hci=3.76 G. In final, the cathodic electro-synthesis is proposed as a facile electrochemical technique for the fabrication of metal cations doped magnetite NPs/ graphene oxide nanocomposite.