Sol-gel assisted synthesis and tuning of structural, photoluminescence, magnetic and multiferroic properties by annealing temperature in nanostructured zinc ferrite

The high purity ZnFe2O4 nanomaterials were successfully synthesized by the sol-gel method at an annealing temperature of 900 degrees C. XRD, FTIR, PL, SEM, VSM and multiferroic analyses were performed to characterize the ZnFe2O4 nanomaterial. XRD examined the cubic spinel phase formation with a crystallite size of approximately 48 nm. The molecular vibrations were found in-between 430 and 3406 cm-1 by FTIR spectroscopy. The Fe-O bond at 541 cm-1 and Zn-O bond at 430 cm-1 indicate the spinel phase yield of ZnFe2O4. The PL emission wavelength was noticed between 417 and 520 nm, with the highest peak at 481.25 nm, representing an intense blue emission and a weak green emission near 519 nm. The agglomerated nanoparticles displayed an average grain size of 0.174 mm from SEM analysis. The magnetic constraints like coercivity, saturation magnetization and retentivity of pure ZnFe2O4 were estimated as 116.14 Oe, 4.26 emu/g and 0.740 emu/g, respectively, at 900 degrees C. The multiferroic analysis between 3-6 KV of pure ZnFe2O4 represents a thin P-E plot of a small loop area. The small loop area points towards the lossy capacitive nature of P-E plots of ZnFe2O4 prepared at 900 degrees C and the low leakage current. The multiferroic constraints displayed a systematic increase with the increase in applied electric fields. The excellent photoluminescence, good magnetic properties and lossy capacitive P-E loop may contribute towards better electronic properties for possible applications in the electronics industry. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Technology Innovation in Mechanical Engineering-2021.

Automated summary

The high purity ZnFe2O4 nanomaterials were synthesized successfully through the sol-gel method at an annealing temperature of 900 degrees C. Characterization using various techniques revealed excellent photoluminescence, good magnetic properties, and a lossy capacitive P-E loop in the ZnFe2O4 nanomaterial, which may contribute towards better electronic properties for potential applications in the electronics industry.