Effect of microwave sintering on synthesis and structural properties of nanocrystalline Mg-Cd ferrites

The magnesium-cadmium ferrites with chemical composition MgxCd1-xFe2O4 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) were synthesized by oxalate co-precipitation method using AR grade sulfates. The precipitates of oxalates were sintered using microwave sintering technique at optimized power 560 W for 10 min. These ferrites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, field effect scanning electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy techniques. The formation of single phase cubic spinel structure of all the ferrites was confirmed by XRD analysis. The lattice constant of Mg-Cd ferrites was found to decrease with increasing Mg2+ content. The morphological study showed that the grain size of the ferrites was decreased with increase in Mg2+ content. The existence of two main strong absorption bands around 600 and 400 cm(-1) corresponding to tetrahedral and octahedral complexes in the FTIR spectra confirmed the formation of ferrites. The remarkable change was observed in the parameters like lattice constant, average crystallite size, grain size and the porosity of the ferrites as compared to that reported by conventional sintering technique. The most useful outcome of microwave sintering technique was to yield the phase pure ferrites within short duration and low energy consumption.