Influence of Y and La substitution on particle size, structural and magnetic properties of nanosized nickel ferrite prepared by using citrate precursor method

The compounds with the formulas NiFe2O4, NiFe1.9Y0.1O4 and NiFe1.9La0.1O4 were prepared by citrate precursor method and followed by heat treatment in air at 600 °C for 5 h. Crystal structure, valence state, chemical bonding and composition of the samples were studied rigorously by XRD, SXRD, XANES, FTIR and ICP-AES. Rietveld refinement of XRD and SXRD patterns reveals that the samples crystallize in single spinel phase with almost inverted structure in which the substituted ions Y3+ and La3+ locate in the octahedral sites and about ten percents of nickel atoms were found at the tetrahedral sites. Morphology and particle size were studied by SEM and TEM. The results show that the samples are composed of clustered nanoparticles with mean particle size decreases approximately from 20 nm in NiFe2O4 sample to 10 nm in the substituted ones. The magnetic measurements were carried out by means of a VSM. Spontaneous magnetization, magnetic coercivity, Curie temperature, superparamagnetic transition temperature, interparticle interaction energy and effective anisotropy were determined and explained on the basis of the surface and finite-size effects and cation distribution.