Formation of magnetic microstructure of the nanosized NiFe2O4 synthesized via solid-state reaction

Magnetic NiFe2O4 structure formation was studied through structural, compositional and magnetic characterization of obtained reaction products of a simple, high yielding and low-cost solid-state reaction. Initial annealing of the starting oxides mixture at 700oC did not allow us to observe formation of the desired magnetic phase. In contrast, subsequent thermomagnetic measurements up to 800oC indicated the considerable increase of the magnetic moment, which can be reasonably assigned to the changes in phase composition and formation of magnetic NiFe2O4 structure during the heating cycle of measurements. Nanosized NiFe2O4 phase formation has been confirmed by the following XRD and MS phase analyses and its nanocrystalline structure by XRD and SEM/TEM techniques. The obtained hysteresis loop taken after TM measurements suggest the increased volume of magnetically active material and thus additionally support the previous findings.