Investigation of structural and magnetic properties of co-precipitated Mn-Ni ferrite nanoparticles in the presence of α-Fe2O3 phase

A systematic study on structural and magnetic properties of co-precipitated MnxNi1−xFe2O4 (x=0.5, 0.6, 0.7) ferrite nanoparticles annealed at 800 °C was carried out using XRD, FE-SEM, VSM and MÖSSBAUER techniques. Anti-ferromagnetic α-Fe2O3 phase was observed along with the magnetic spinel phase in the XRD patterns. It is observed that both lattice parameter and crystallite size of spinel phase increase with increase in concentration of Mn2+ along with the amount of α-Fe2O3 phase. The saturation magnetization (Ms) decreases while coercivity (Hc) increases with increase of Mn2+ ion concentration. Mössbauer spectra indicate that iron ions present in A and B sites are in the Fe3+ state and Fe2+ is absent. The results are interpreted in terms of observed anti-ferromagnetic α-Fe2O3 phase, core-shell interactions and cation redistribution.