Combustion synthesis and characterization of highly crystalline single phase nickel ferrite nanoparticles

A combustion route of synthesizing highly crystalline single phase nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) spinel nanoparticles using various amounts of dl-alanine as fuel has been reported in this paper. The role of the amount of fuel is found to be significant in the size control and phase purity of nano crystalline samples. The structural, thermal, morphological and magnetic studies have been carried out. XRD patterns reveal the formation of highly crystalline nano NiFe2O4 with high degree of phase purity when fuel concentration is maintained at 1 M and 2 M. FTIR spectra also prove the formation of pure nano NiFe2O4. The temperature and fuel effects are found to have strong influence on size, structural, and magnetic properties of materials. The magnetic measurements show that the nano NiFe2O4 samples exhibit soft ferromagnetism with the highest saturation magnetization Ms at room temperature as 42.53 emu/g.

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► Nano sized nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) has been prepared through combustion route using dl-alanine as fuel.
► The effects of concentration of fuel on structure, morphology, and magnetic properties are reported.
► Samples prepared with 2 M of fuel have better crystallinity, phase purity, uniform size distribution and magnetization than other samples.
► It is preferable to use 2 M aqueous solution of dl-alanine in order to synthesis highly quality NiFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles.