Mössbauer studies of La–Zn substitution effect in strontium ferrite nanoparticles

Abstract: Many studies on cation substitution have been carried out in sintered magnets application, since intrinsic magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization depend on the cation configuration in the M-type hexagonal structure. La–Zn substituted Sr-ferrite nanoparticles were fabricated by a sol–gel method. Their magnetic and structural properties were characterized by using the XRD, VSM, TG/DTA, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. We focused on the Mössbauer effects of non-magnetic ions such as the Zn occupation of and 2b sites in the M-type hexagonal structure. As substitution x increased, the saturation magnetization increased, and took a maximum at before decreasing again. We interpret that it is closely related to Zn occupation of 4f 1 and 2b. This was thought to be caused by the preferential location of Zn2+ at the down-spin Fe3+ site. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]