The effect of post-calcination on cation distributions and magnetic properties of the coprecipitated MgFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this study, the effects of post-calcination temperature on the structure, cation distributions and magnetic properties of the coprecipitated MgFe2O4 nanoparticles have been investigated. The structure and cation distributions between the tetrahedral and octahedral sites characterized by X-ray diffraction method showed single phase MgFe2O4 nanoparticles that had a partially inverse structure which the inversion degree depended on the post-calcination temperature. The cation distributions were also confirmed by the infrared spectroscopy and magnetic measurement results. The square-like shape MgFe2O4 nanoparticles were observed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Magnetic properties of MgFe2O4 nanoparticles studied by vibration sample magnetometry showed the ferrimagnetic characteristics which the saturation magnetization increased from 8.02 to 13.41 emu/g with the increase of post-calcination temperature from 600 to 700 degrees C and then decreased to 10.37 emu/g for 800 degrees C. The highest saturation magnetization of 13.41 emu/g was attributed to the low inversion degree.