Carbon-encapsulated NiZn ferrite magnetic nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by an inexpensive and environment-friendly method of in-situ starch coating route combined with hydrogen thermal reduction. The nanocomposites were characterized in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrate sample magnetometer (VSM) and so on techniques. XRD, FT-IR, TGA and TEM images indicate the formation of carbon-encapsulated NiZn ferrite magnetic nanocomposites. XRD patterns reveal that the crystalline structure of the nanocomposites is cubic spinel and taenite emerges under the hydrogen thermal reductive ambient. FT-IR spectra suggest that there are interactions on the NiZn ferrite nanocomposites and a spinel-type structure corresponding to NiZn ferrite has formed. TGA shows that the weight loss of the nanocomposites can be divided into three stages in the course of heat decomposition. TEM observations reveal that the carbon-encapsulated NiZn ferrite magnetic nanocomposites have an intact core-shell structure. Under the magnetic field, the nanocomposites exhibited the ferrimagnetic behavior. The saturated magnetization (M-s) of carbon-encapsulated NiZn ferrite nanocomposites calcined at 400 degrees C can reach a high value up to 72.67 emu/g, and the saturated magnetization (M-s) decreases as the annealing temperature goes up, while the coercivity (Hc), magnetic residual (Mr) magnetic parameters practically fixed on 115.15 Oe and 7.85 emu/g. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.