Magnetic studies of magnesium ferrite nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel technique

Abstract

Mg-ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by sol-gel technique and were annealed at different temperatures in air for 4 hours. Structural studies by X-ray diffraction confirmed the Mg-ferrite phasein all the samples annealed up to 600°C. Traces of α-Fe2O3 were found for the sample annealed at higher temperature of 750°C.Grain size was found to be increasedfrom 13nm to 37nm with the increase in the annealing temperature. These samples showed super-paramagentic behavior at 300K where as at 60K they showed ferrimagnetic behavior.For the as prepared sample the magnetization value of 21emu/g was observed at 300K. The highest magnetization value of 24 emu/g which is ∼ 90% of the bulk value of Mg-ferrite, was observed at 300K for the sample annealed at 750°C.The observed magnetic behavior of these nanoparticles may be understood on the basis of nanosize grains, increase inrandom anisotropy and reduced thermal effects at low temperature.