Abstract
Polyethylene glycol (Mwt 400 and 10,000) stabilized Mn
3
O
4
nanoparticles were synthesized via the thermal decomposition approach. Structural characteristics were evaluated by XRD, FT-IR, TGA, VSM, and TEM analysis. Crystallite sizes were calculated as 10±3 and 15±5 nm for PEG-400 and PEG-10,000 stabilized Mn
3
O
4
NPs, respectively. FT-IR and TGA proved the presence of PEG on the surface of Mn
3
O
4
NPs. Magnetization measurements carried out at room and low temperatures revealed the superparamagnetic nature of the Mn
3
O
4
NPs. The blocking temperature was detected as 39 K and thermomagnetic irreversibility starts at 40 K. Both coercive field and saturation magnetization increases as temperature decreases below
T
C
. Reduced magnetization compared to its bulk value has been explained by spin canting and presence of disordered spins. It was observed that the effects of different molecular weight PEG on the magnetic properties of the Mn
3
O
4
nanoparticles are more or less the same.