Influence of ferrite to silica ratio and thermal treatment on porosity, surface, microstructure and magnetic properties of Zn0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4/SiO2 nanocomposites

The evolution of structural and magnetic properties of Zn0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4/SiO2 nanocomposites with the ferrite content embedded in the SiO2 matrix and the annealing temperature was investigated. The results showed the increase of crystallite size (2.7-57.4 nm), saturation magnetization (0.36-82.4 emu/g), remanence magnetization (0.06-15.4 emu/g) and the decrease of specific pore volume (0.183-0.010 cm(3)/g) and specific surface area (<0.5-247 m(2)/g) with the increase of Zn0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 content embedded in the SiO2 matrix and the annealing temperature. The SiO2 matrix exhibits diamagnetic behavior with a small ferromagnetic fraction, Zn0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 embedded in SiO2 matrix presents superparamagnetic-like behavior, while bulk Zn0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 a high-quality ferromagnetic type behavior. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.