Superspin glass state in MnFe2O4 nanoparticles

Nanosized MnFe2O4 ferrites were synthesized by a simple method, which is based on the solidstate ball-milling and calcinations of nitrate precursors and citric acid. The samples were characterized by using different methods. The results indicate that the products mainly consist of MnFe2O4 nanoparticles. The effect of different annealing temperatures on particle sizes and crystallinity of the samples was also studied. By increasing the particle size, the coercivity and magnetization of the samples increase. The increase of magnetization by increasing the crystallite size could be attributed to the lower surface spin canting and surface spin disorder of the larger magnetic nanoparticles. Our analysis of ac susceptibility measurements shows that the interparticle magnetic interaction leads to the superspin glass-like behavior in these nanoparticle samples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.