Effect of Mo substitution on structural and magnetic properties of Zinc ferrite nanoparticles

Nano ferrite ZnFe2-xMoxO4 (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) samples were synthesized by using citrate method. The phase purity and the structure parameters were studied using X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, and magnetic measurements. Rietveld analysis of X-ray diffraction data revealed that Mo doping ZnFe2O4 changes the degree of inversion of Zn2+ cations. The oxidation state of Mo was studied by using FTIR analysis. Mo doped ZnFe2O4 has a ferromagnetic properties. The magnetization decreases by the replacement of Fe3+ ions by non-magnetic Mo3+ ions. Mo doped ZnFe2O4 samples have a very small coercive field (H-c), which changes depending on the amount of Mo in the sample and reach its maximum value for ZnFe1.7Mo0.3O4. Cation distribution is proposed in an attempt to explain the experimental results of XRD, IR, and VSM data. The direct proportion between the coercive field and the Fe2+ content in the samples was studied in detailed. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.