Nanocrystalline spinel ferrites by solid state reaction route

Nanostructured NiFe2O4, MnFe2O4 and (NiZn)Fe2O4 were synthesized by aliovalent ion doping using conventional solid-state reaction route. With the doping of Nb2O5, the size of NiFe2O4 is reduced down to 33 nm. Similarly, nanostructured manganese ferrites (MnFe2O4) with diameters in the range of 45–30 nm were synthesized by Ti4+ ion doping. Particle diameters in all the specimens are found to decrease with increasing dopant content. The substitution of Nb5+ or Ti3+ ions essentially breaks up the ferrimagnetically active oxygen polyhedra. This created nanoscale regions of ferrites. Saturation magnetization and coercive field show a strong dependence on the size of the ferrite grains. Superparamagnetic behaviour is observed from the Mossbauer spectra of nanostructured NiFe2O4, if the particle size is reduced to 30 nm. Zero field cooled and field cooled curves from 30 nm sized MnFe2O4 particles showed a peak at T B (∼ 125 K), typical of superparamagnetic blocking temperature. These results are explained in terms of core/shell structure of the materials. The d.c. resistivity of the doped specimens decreases by atleast five orders of magnitude compared to pure sample. This is ascribed to the presence of an interfacial amorphous phase between the sites.