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Synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline spinel Zinc ferrite prepared by sol-gel auto-combustion technique
S. Khorrami1, F. Gharib2, G. Mahmoudzadeh1,*, S. Sadat Sepehr1,
S. Sadat Madani1, N. Naderfar1, S. Manie1
1Department of chemistry, North tehran branch, Islamic azad university, Tehran, Iran
2Department of chemistry,Shahid beheshti university,Tehran, Iran
Received: 21 November 2010; Accepted: 10 January 2011
Abstract
Sol–gel auto-combustion is a unique combination of the combustion and the chemical gelation processes. In this work, nanosize (d) powders with compositions of ZnFe2O4 were synthesized by sol–gel combustion method. The puffy, porous brown powders as-combusted was calcined at the temperature of 750–1000◦C for 4 h. These powders are characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Particle size and morphology of nanocrystalline were determined by XRD and SEM, respectively. The average particle size was estimated about 17 nm for calcined powders. Surface area for zinc ferrite synthesized by this method is 36 m2/g.
Keywords: Sol–gel auto-combustion, Nanocrystalline, ZnFe2O4, X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy