Preparation and Characterization of La Doped Ferrite Using Marine Manganese Nodules as Raw Materials

A kind of La doped ferrite was prepared with marine manganese nodules derived from East Pacific sea-bottom as raw material, NaOH as fluxing reagent, La(NO3)3 as doping agent, by calcination at 1000 ℃ for 5 h. XRD analysis showed that the ferrite products were of a spinel structure, and that its molecular formula could be expressed as MnFe2-xRxO4. SEM images proved that these ferrites showed octahedral and cubic aspects. It was found that there is some relationship between the La doping amount and the magnetic property of the ferrite. When the La doping amount was 0.03, the susceptibility of the ferrite was maximal. The as-prepared La doped ferrite is a kind of soft magnetic material that is easy to be magnetized with rather weak coercive force.