Synthesis, Structural, and Magnetic Characterization of Mn1−xNixFe2O4 Spinel Nanoferrites

Nanoferrites of composition Mn1−xNixFe2O4 with x=0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 were prepared by the chemical coprecipitation method. The prepared nanoferrites were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) to study the compositional, structural, morphological and magnetic changes taking place with varying Ni concentration in the composition of the prepared nanoferrites. IR reveals the presence of both high-frequency and low-frequency bands due to tetrahedral and octahedral sites, respectively. The XRD results indicated the formation of single spinel ferrite with crystalline size in the range of 14–26 nm. The lattice parameters (a) decrease with the increase of the Ni concentration x in the lattice. Further information about the morphology of the nanoferrites was obtained from the AFM and SEM results. The magnetic hysteresis curves clearly indicate the soft nature of the prepared nanoferrites. Various magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization (Ms) and remanence (Mr) are calculated from the hysteresis loops and observed to be dependent on the composition.