International Science Community Association Research Journal of Recent Sciences 2277 - 2502 6 2 2017 02 2 Effect of temperature on the structural, morphological and magnetic properties of magnesium ferrite nanoparticles 1 9 EN Khanna Lavanya 1 Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160014, India Tripathi S.K. 2 Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160014, India > Research Paper 2016 9 1 2017 02 2 In the present paper, magnesium ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized by conventional sol–gel method. The as-synthesized material was calcined at different temperatures and their structural, magnetic, FTIR, morphological and compositional analyses were studied. XRD patterns revealed formation of cubic structured magnesium ferrite nanoparticles. With the increase in calcination temperature, the crystallite size increased and crystallinity improved. No peaks corresponding to any impurity or additional phases were detected; this was also confirmed by the FTIR spectra. With increase in the temperature, a gradual disappearance of C-H, hydroxylate and carboxylate groups occurred, while Fe-O bond became prominent. The magnetic analysis done by VSM revealed superparamagnetic behavior of the calcined nanoparticles. With increase in temperature, magnetic saturation, coercivity, remanent magnetization and magnetic squareness value increased, owing to improved crystallization and bigger particle size. Considering biomedical application, this is an undesired feature as more the squareness value, lesser is the superparamagnetic character. The sample calcined at 500°C was found to be the most suitable for carrying out further investigations. Its morphological and compositional analysis revealed its spherical agglomerated formation with the desired elemental composition. In vitro cytotoxicity test on HaCaT cells using MTT (3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide, a tetrazole) assay revealed the concentration-dependent cell-viability of the synthesized magnesium ferrite nanoparticles. The spherical formation, superparamagnetism and cell-viability (at lower concentrations) allows for its successful application in biomedicine. Copyright@ International Science Community Association