Distribution of cations in Co1−xMnxFe2O4 using XRD, magnetization and Mössbauer spectroscopy

The nanocrystalline Co1−xMnxFe2O4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) ferrites are synthesized by auto-combustion method. The structural properties and phase identification of the samples are studied using X-ray powder diffraction and the Rietveld analysis. The refinement results confirm that the cationic distribution over the tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the spinel lattice is partially inverse. The magnetic properties of the prepared samples are studied by using an M-H hysteresis curves. The maximum saturation magnetization and coercivity of samples are 68.94 emu/gm and 1.59 KOe respectively. From 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy data, the variation in line width, isomer shift, quadrupole splitting and hyperfine magnetic field on Mn2+ substitution have been studied. The composition dependent cation distribution estimated from Rietveld analysis and magnetic studies is in good agreement with each other.