Study of Cation Distribution and Magnetic Properties of MFe2O4 (M = Fe, Co, Zn, Mn, and Cu) Nanoparticles

Ferrite spinel’s MFe2O4 (M = Co, Fe, Zn, Mn, and Cu) nanoparticles were produced by a co-precipitation method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to verify phase purity, crystal structure, and average crystallite size of MFe2O4 nanoparticles. All samples have not any phase impurity, which has a spinel structure with crystallite sizes between 7 and 29 nm. The results of far Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) of all samples were revealed in two strong bands about 570 cm−1 and 380 cm−1, which characterize the intrinsic lattice vibrations of octahedral and tetrahedral sites of the spinel structure, respectively. To measure the magnetic properties, a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) was used, and the results showed that the manganese nano-ferrite presents the highest saturation magnetization of 55.2 emu/g, while zinc ferrite reveals a low saturation magnetization value of 2.114 emu/g, among different synthesized nano-ferrites. Also, our findings indicated that although both particle size and cation distribution, the magnetic properties are affective on the magnetic properties; however, the role of particle size is more significant.