Al-substituted zinc spinel ferrite nanoparticles: Preparation and evaluation of structural, electrical, magnetic and photocatalytic properties

Abstract In this research paper, we have reported the thermal, structural, magnetic and optical properties of unsubstituted and aluminum substituted zinc ferrite nanoparticles. These substituted and unsubstituted ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by cost effective co-precipitation method. The co-precipitated unannealed nanoparticles of the typical sample were subjected to thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) to probe the annealing temperature. The X-rays diffraction (XRD) technique was used for the determination of structural parameters. XRD patterns of all compositions of AlxZnFe2-xO4 nanoparticles confirmed the FCC structure of these spinel ferrite nanoparticles. Besides the main crystal structure determination, many other lattice parameters and their variations with respect to increased Al3+ contents in ZnFe2O4 were also calculated from XRD data and have been discussed in detail in this article. The morphology of the synthesized materials has been studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and average particles size found