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This study aimed to systematically understand the magnetic properties of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles functionalized with different Pluronic F-127 surfactant concentrations (Fe3O4@Pluronic F-127) obtained by using an improved magnetic characterization method based on three-dimensional magnetic maps generated by scanning magnetic microscopy. Additionally, these Fe3O4 and Fe3O4@Pluronic F-127 nanoparticles, as promising systems for biomedical applications, were prepared by a wet chemical reaction. The magnetization curve was obtained through these three-dimensional maps, confirming that both Fe3O4 and Fe3O4@Pluronic F-127 nanoparticles have a superparamagnetic behavior. The as-prepared samples, stored at approximately 20 °C, showed no change in the magnetization curve even months after their generation, resulting in no nanoparticles free from oxidation, as Raman measurements have confirmed. Furthermore, by applying this magnetic technique, it was possible to estimate that the nanoparticles’ magnetic core diameter was about 5 nm. Our results were confirmed by comparison with other techniques, namely as transmission electron microscopy imaging and diffraction together with Raman spectroscopy. Finally, these results, in addition to validating scanning magnetic microscopy, also highlight its potential for a detailed magnetic characterization of nanoparticles.

The bcc and hcp phases of disordered Fe 100-x Ru x alloys are investigated with several experimental techniques to study the composition dependence of the magnetic properties in these structures. With an appropriate annealing the prepared samples are single phase. The iron rich alloys are ferromagnetic at room temperature with the bcc structure. However, an antiferromagnetic coupling is introduced with the addition of ruthenium. Above 30 at% Ru a paramagnetic behavior is observed at 300 K and 77 K, where the alloys have the hcp structure. In the ferromagnetic phase the Curie temperature decreases steadly with the increase of the ruthenium concentration. In the paramagnetic hcp phase the mean volume per atom is almost triplicated as compared to the bcc phase, which brings out the breakdown of the magnetization and the collapse of the hyperfine field at the iron sites simultaneously with the crystallographic phase transition.

Half-doped praseodymium manganites, Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3, synthesized by the sol–gel method produce highly crystalline nanoparticles with no structural disorder at the surface. As for most half-doped (Mn3+:Mn4+ = 1) antiferromagnetic (AFM) charge-ordered manganites, ferromagnetism (FM) appears as particle size decreases. A possible origin of FM phase development is the lacking oxygen ligands at the surface that increases Mn3+ at the expense of Mn4+ in order to maintain electronic neutrality. In this work, we show that Mn3+:Mn4+ = 1 ratio is preserved in the whole crystalline particle with the exception of the surface, where this ratio changes to Mn3+:Mn4+ > 1. This Mn3+ excess makes a double exchange Mn3+ → O2– → Mn4+ prevail over the superexchange, giving rise to the FM interactions. We show that a shell thickness of only one unit cell, with a cell = 0.38 nm, is enough to explain the onset of FM at the surface, whereas the volume remains AFM. Furthermore, the FM to AFM ratio fits to the increase of surface-to-volume ratio with decreasing particle size.