Microwave combustion synthesis of zinc substituted nanocrystalline spinel cobalt ferrite: Structural and magnetic studies

Zinc doped cobalt ferrite spinel nanoparticles were prepared by the microwave combustion method. All the samples were characterized by using X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. The XRD patterns confirmed the formation of single phase CoFe2O4 inverse spinel structure without impurities. The lattice parameter increased from 8.380 to 8.396 Å with increasing Zn2+ fraction. The average crystallite sizes obtained by a Scherrer method varied between 46.22 nm and 30.79 nm. The estimated band gap energy values increases with an increasing zinc fraction (1.88-2.10 eV). The elemental composition of Zn, Co, and Fe was qualitatively obtained from energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis.