Magnetic properties of MnZn ferrite nanoparticles obtained by SHS and sol-gel autocombustion techniques

Abstract MnZn ferrite nanoparticles have been synthesized by self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) and sol-gel autocombustion techniques. The crystallite size, microstructure and magnetic properties were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) methods. The results showed that single phase manganese ferrite could be achieved directly without any post calcination. However, the crystallite size of the sol-gel autocombusted sample (44 nm) was finer than that of the SHS (57 nm). The SHS synthesized MnZn ferrite with the larger crystallite size exhibited the larger magnetization of 50.6 emu/g than that of 20.9 emu/g for the sol gel autocombusted nanoparticles, despite of its more structure inversity.