Sol–gel route of synthesis of nanoparticles of MgFe2O4 and XRD, FTIR and VSM study

Nanoparticles of MgFe2O4 are synthesized using sol–gel autocombustion method. Structural studies are carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD pattern of MgFe2O4 provides information about single-phase formation of spinel structure with cubic symmetry. The grain size and lattice constant are obtained using XRD data. The cation distribution is also proposed theoretically. The change in site preference of cations in nano-MgFe2O4 is compared with its bulk counterpart. The structural morphology of the nanoparticles is studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Formation of spinel structure is conformed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), which also lends support for the cation distribution proposed using XRD data. The effect of nanoregime on parameters such as bond length, vibration frequency and force constant are discussed with the help of FTIR data. The M–H loop of MgFe2O4 has been traced using the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and magnetic parameters such as saturation magnetization (MS), coercivity (HC) and retentivity (MR) are obtained from VSM data.