Influence of synthesis approach on structural and magnetic properties of lithium ferrite nanoparticles

► Nanocrystalline Li0.5Fe2.5O4 ferrites were synthesized with an average crystallite size of 12.3 nm and 5.7 nm by chemical co-precipitation and reverse microemulsion technique respectively. ► The non-saturated M-H loops, absence of hysteresis, remanence and coercivity at room temperature is indicative of the presence of superparamagnetic and single-domain particles for both the materials. ► The blocking temperature TB shifts to lower temperature with the increase of applied field, which is attributed to the reduction of magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant. ► At high temperature, microemulsion synthesized nanoparticles are observed to show a maxima immediately below the Curie temperature which is attributed to the cumulative effect of the anisotropy variation of temperature and particle size growth during the measurement.