Fractal Growth of Ferrite Nanoparticles Prepared by Citrate-Gel Auto-Combustion Method

We report a tree fractal growth of ferrite nanoparticles prepared by Citrate-Gel Auto-Combustion method. We compared the growth pattern of CuFe2O4, Cr2FeO4, CdFe2O4, MgFe2O4, and Li2Fe3O5. The ferrite 3D growth was found to follow Family-Vicsek fractal growth in which the next added particle is looking for the best 3D orientation to minimize its surface free energy. The nanoparticles position in the sites of the growing tree forms a pattern that depends on the temperature, particle size, the orientation of the first seed particle and the particle to particle interaction forces. The results showed that the fractal arrangement is more preferred in the thermal growth of nanoparticles.