Low-temperature synthesis, structural characteristic of magnesium ferrite

Abstract

The present paper deals with the synthesis and the structural characterization of magnesium ferrite (MgFe2O4) the synthesis of MgFe2O4 was carried out by well-known sol-gel auto-combustion method in which citric acid was used as a chelating agent. The as obtained powder of MgFe2O4 was then annealed at 500° C for 4 h to improve the crystallinity and remove the impurities. The annealed powder of MgFe2O4 was then subjected to X-ray diffraction study in order to know the phase purity and crystal structure. The X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD) reveals the presence of those reflections which belongs to cubic spinel structure. The analysis of XRD pattern proves that the prepared MgFe2O4 powder is nanocrystalline in nature and possesses single phase cubic spinel structure. Using the XRD data the structural parameters like lattice constant, unit cell volume, X-ray density, hopping length, tetra edge and octa edge etc. structural parameters were determined. The obtained structural parameters are in good agreement to that reported in the literature. The crystallite size was also obtained by standard Sherrer's formula and was found to be 22 nanometre. Thus, the nanocrystalline nature of MgFe2O4 was obtained through sol-gel auto-combustion method and the X-ray diffraction study reveals the single phase cubic spinel structure.