Structural analysis of barium hexaferrite embedded in an amorphous matrix

For the compounds formed by barium hexaferrite particles embedded in a silica xerogel matrix, the analysis of the structural evolution and magnetic properties under thermal treatment was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). A variation of the Rietveld refinement method is used to calculate the amorphous and crystalline content in these composites by assuming an initial crystalline model with the same composition as the materials to be modeled.