Novel combustion route of synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline mixed ferrites of Ni–Zn

A novel combustion method of synthesis has been employed in this study for the preparation of nanoparticles of Ni–Zn ferrites. The preparation method is simple yet effective and its novelty lies in the direct mixing of reactants and the fuel. The structural and morphological studies on the nanoparticles of Ni–Zn ferrites have been carried out using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The values of grain size of the ferrites obtained using the Scherrer's formula are in the range between 10 and 20 nm. The mean value of X-ray density of the Ni–Zn ferrites is around 5343 Kg/m3, which is more than the one experimentally observed for their bulk counterparts. The distribution of cations has been proposed theoretically for each concentration of Ni–Zn ferrite with reference to their respective experimental lattice constant values. Room-temperature magnetic measurements are carried out using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) with a view to understand the impact of the nano-regime on the magnetic parameters. The observed values of magnetization are in the range from 4 to 26 emu/g which is lower than that of bulk particles of Ni–Zn ferrite.