High pressure in-situ X-ray diffraction study on Zn-doped magnetite nanoparticles

Abstract We have performed high pressure synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction experiments on two different samples of Zn-doped magnetite nanoparticles (formula Fe (3-x) Zn x O 4 ; x = 0.2, 0.5). The structural behavior of then a noparticles was studied up to 13.5 GPa for x = 0.2, and up to 17.4 GPa for x = 0.5. We have found that both systems remain in the cubic spinel structure as expected for this range of applied pressures. The analysis of the unit cell volume vs. pressure results in bulk modulus values lower than in both end-members, magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) and zinc ferrite (ZnFe 2 O 4 ), suggesting that chemical disorder may favor compressibility, which is expected to improve the increase of the Neel temperature under compression.