Room temperature magnetism in zinc nano ferrite synthesized by a novel oxalate-ceramic method

•Oxalate-ceramic method is a novel technique to synthesize spinel ferrites.•Zinc ferrite synthesized by this technique are in nanocrystalline form with average crystallite size of 32 nm.•Neel temperature of zinc ferrite is found to be 557 K.•Different magnetic behavior in different temperature regime.

Zinc nano-ferrite has been synthesized using a novel oxalate-ceramic method and its magnetic properties are reported in this paper. The hysteresis loop recorded at 300 K exhibits ferrimagnetic behavior. The Neel temperature was found to be 557 K. The AC susceptibility curve also indicates ferrimagnetic behavior. The temperature dependent magnetization curves, obtained in the temperature range of 4–300 K, show spin glass behavior. Using this method of synthesis large quantity of ferrite can be synthesized therefore this method can become useful technique for industrial scale production.