Effect of Annealing Time on the Cation Distribution in Mn Doped CoFe2O4

Abstract

In this work, the series of CoFe2xMnxO4 powders were synthesized using the solid state method. The structure and lattice parameter of the samples were determined by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement method. The morphology was confirmed without annealing and with annealing at 500°C for 4 and 100 h, with the samples examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Then, the distribution of migrating cations was analyzed using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Also, magnetic properties were examined by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). It can be confirmed from the morphology that the average particle size before and after annealing remained unchanged, and ranged from 0.66 ± 0.20 m to 0.79 ± 0.26 m. Furthermore, the distribution of cations was no different after annealing Mn ions at 500°C for 100 h. However, the distribution of cations migrated to their site of preference after annealing Co and Fe ions in the structure. The result of migrations induced a saturated magnetization increase to 42.24 emu/g.