A Salt‐Assisted Combustion Method to Prepare Well‐Dispersed Octahedral MnCr2O4 Spinel Nanocrystals

Abstract

Well‐dispersed nanocrystalline MnCr2O4 was prepared by a salt‐assisted combustion process using low‐toxic glycine as fuel and Mn(NO3)2 and Cr(NO3)3·9H2O as raw materials. The obtained products were characterized by X‐ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The fabrication process was monitored by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG‐DTA). The phase formation process was detected by XRD, and MnCr2O4 single phase with high crystallinity was formed at 700°C. TEM and SEM images revealed that the products were composed of well‐dispersed octahedral nanocrystals with an average size of 80 nm. Inert salt‐LiCl played an important role in breaking the network structure of agglomerated nanocrystallites.