Structural, magnetic, thermal and optical properties of Sn2+ cation doped magnetite nanoparticles

Tin doped nanomagnetites, SnxFe3-xO4, were synthesized with various concentrations of Sn2+ ion (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0) by co-precipitation method. XRD, VSM, TG-DTA, SEM-EDX and UV-Vis were used to characterize and study the structural, magnetic, thermal, and optical properties of SnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles. XRD confirmed the presence of cubic structure and spinet phase of tin doped magnetites. The d-spacing, lattice parameter, density, crystallite size and cation distribution were derived from the XRD analysis. The M - H curves exhibited changes in saturation magnetization (M-s), coercive field (H-c), remanent magnetization (M-r) and susceptibility (chi), with increasing concentration of non-magnetic Sn2+ ions. Differential thermal analysis was used to study the thermal stability of SnxFe3-xO4 nanoparticles. The SEM images revealed the surface morphology of the nanoparticles and the EDX spectra showed an increase in the Sn content and a corresponding decrease in the Fe content for the tin doped samples. The optical bandgap was found to be centered at 3.9 eV for the synthesized materials. This systematic study may be the first comprehensive report on synthesis and characterization of tin doped magnetites.