Processing, structure and magnetic properties correlation in co-precipitated Ca-ferrite

• In this study, the calcium hexaferrite has been synthesized using co-precipitation method.
• M-phase was present only in the La-doped sample at about 1200 °C.
• The value of maximum magnetization is relatively high due to M-phase formation.
• The effect of La amount on the magnetic properties has been discussed.

La-substituted hexagonal calcium ferrite, Ca1−XLaXFe12O19 (x varies from 0 to 0.6 with the step of 0.2), was synthesized by applying co-precipitation method, in which the molar ratio of Fe3+/(Ca2++La2+) was 11. The ferrite precursors were prepared from aqueous solution of calcium nitrate, ferric nitrate and lanthanum nitrate by co-precipitation of calcium, iron and lanthanum ions by using an aqueous base of sodium hydroxide (1.5 M) at the pH of 14 and at room temperature. These precursors were calcinated with different amount of La at different temperature of 700, 1100 and 1200 °C for constant calcination time of 1 h in a static air atmosphere. Some tests such as simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were carried out to investigate the thermal behavior, crystallographic properties, morphology and magnetic properties of the precursor powders which were calcinated at different temperatures. The powder XRD patterns of samples which consisted of La as dopant and were calcinated at 1200 °C for 1 h, indicates the formation of calcium hexaferrite and also α-Fe2O3 besides Magnetoplumbite-phase (M-phase). However, the results showed that CaFe4O7 and α-Fe2O3 phases were formed in the sample with the same condition but without using any dopant. The results of SEM showed that the calcium hexaferrite particle were regular hexagonal platelets with the size range of 1–2 µm. The magnetic properties such as maximum magnetization (MMax), remanent magnetization (Mr) and coercivity (Hc) were measured from the hysteresis loops. Low values of coercive field (16.3 kA m−1) and maximum magnetization (50.6 A m2 kg−1) were obtained from calcium hexaferrite particle in optimum amount of La (X=0.4) which calcinated at the temperature of 1200 °C.