Thermal Decomposition Study of Mn doped Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

Fe3O4 is an excellent magnetic material among iron oxides. It has a cubic inverse spinel structure exhibiting distinguished electric and magnetic properties. In this paper the authors report the synthesis of Mn doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles by wet chemical reduction technique at ambient temperature and its thermal characterization. Ferric chloride hexa-hydrate (FeCl3 center dot 6H(2)O), manganese chloride tetra-hydrate (MnCl2 center dot 4H(2)O) and sodium boro-hydrate (NaBlid) were used for synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles at ambient temperature. The elemental composition of the as-synthesized Mn doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles were determined by energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) technique. Thennogravimetric (TO) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were carried out on the Mn doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the temperature range of ambient to 1124 K. The thermo-curves revealed that the particles decompose by four steps. The kinetic parameters were evaluated using non-mechanistic equations for the thermal decomposition.