Synthesis and Characterization of Manganese Doped Zinc Ferrite for its Structural and Magnetic Properties

This work reports the synthesis of manganese-doped zinc ferrite nano-composite materials by the solution-gelation method followed by auto combustion using nitrate precursors. The synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques to study their structural, morphological, and chemical properties. The confirmation of a single phase with the Fd3m space group of zinc ferrite was revealed by XRD. The minimum crystallite size of Mn-doped ZnFe2O4 was found to be 32.0614 nm for x = 0.3. Structural analysis of the prepared composites was studied theoretically by Match3 and VESTA software,which revealed the effect of manganese on the polycrystalline structure of the fabricated composites. The FTIR spectra show two bands in the range 540-546 cm-1 and 409-432 cm-1 which confirm the formation of the spinel ferrite phase. For magnetic properties like saturation magnetization, remanence, coercivity, etc., the prepared materials were characterized with Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM).