Effect of Annealing Temperature on Magnetic and Mossbauer Properties of ZnFe2O4 Nanoparticles by Sol-gel Approach

In this study, spinel ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by citrate sol-gel route using nickel nitrates, ferric nitrates and citric acid by annealing at 900, 1000, and 1100 degrees C. We reported the structural and magnetic properties (including Mossbauer analysis) for anisotropy ZnFe2O4 NPs annealed at different temperatures. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) were utilized to analyze the structural properties of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Morphological features of resultant MNPs were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The observed XRD results displayed that the crystallite size increased from 38.60 to 49.28 nm with increasing the annealing temperature in a distinct linear trend. The enhancement of saturation magnetization of the uniaxial ZnFe2O4 NPs was studied and varied from 1.28 to 1.66 emu/g as the annealing temperature increases. The Mossbauer spectra results show that ZnFe2O4 ferrites were paramagnetic in nature at room temperature (RT).