A comparative study of in-situ mechanochemically synthesized Mn0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite nanoparticles in the MnO/ZnO/Fe2O3 and MnO2/Zn/Fe2O3 systems

摘要

In this work, the possibility of using the mechanochemical route to synthesize Mn0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 single phase in the ZnO/MnO/Fe2O3 (system 1) and Zn/MnO2/Fe2O3 (system 2) was investigated. The effects of milling time, heat treatment, and reaction mechanism were also studied. The XRD results indicated that the Mn0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 ferrite was formed after 20 h and 5 h milling, respectively in the systems 1 and 2, with some residual Fe2O3. By performing a Self-propagating high-temperature synthesis for both the systems, it was determined that a mechanism of the ferrite formation could occur by solid-state diffusion mode (gradual mode) for system 1 and by self-propagating mode (explosive/combustion mode) for system 2. By increasing the milling time, the average crystallite size decreased and lattice strain increased for both the systems. Interestingly, the crystallite sizes were smaller in the system 2. IBM micrographs indicated the average particle sizes of 46 nm and 33 nm, respectively for system 1 and 2, after 40 h milling which grew to 70 and 52 nm after annealing at 600 degrees C for 2 h. VSM results suggested a saturation magnetization value of 40 h-milled samples to be 4 and 7 emu/g, respectively for systems 1 and 2, which increased to 22, 37 emu/g after annealing. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.