AN INVESTIGATION INTO MECHANOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF NANOCRYSTALLINE HEXAFERRITE POWDER

Abstract

Nanocrystalline strontium hexaferrite powder has been prepared by a new mechanochemical method in which the single phase hexaferrite was obtained via a sol–gel autocombustion process followed by an intermediate high energy milling step and subsequent annealing. The effects of the intermediate milling on the phase evolution, crystallite size and annealing behavior of the final products were investigated using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The single phase strontium hexaferrite was obtained at an annealing temperature of 800°C, while this temperature was 1,000°C for the powder synthesized without milling. It could be seen that an intermediate milling accelerates the formation of strontium hexaferrite during the calcination process. The results showed that in the milled powder, the average crystallite size of the ferrite was about 40 nm and much smaller than that of the nonmilled powder. Magnetic properties were also measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The particle morphology was then studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopes (SEM and TEM).