Abstract
Copper ferrite, belonging to the wide and technologically relevant class of spinel ferrites, was grown in the form of t-CuFe2O4 nanocrystals within a porous matrix of silica in the form of either an aerogel or a xerogel, and compared to a bulk sample. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy revealed the presence of two different sub-lattices within the crystal structure of t-CuFe2O4, one tetragonal and one cubic, defined by the Cu2+ and Fe3+ ions respectively. Our investigation provides evidence that the Jahn-Teller distortion, which occurs on the Cu2+ ions located in octahedral sites, does not affect the coordination geometry of the Fe3+ ions, regardless of their location in octahedral or tetrahedral sites.
Highlights
Copper ferrite is a ceramic material belonging to a class of metal-oxides of generic formula MFe2O4 where M represents a bi-valent transition metal ion, e.g. Mn2+, Ni2+, Co2+, Cu2+ 1, possessing the spinel structure
The sol-gel autocombustion process proposed by Ansari et al for the synthesis of lead and copper hexaferrite (PbFe12O19 and CuFe12O19 respectively) using maltose as reducing agent[19,20] enables to tune the size and shape of the produced nanoparticles by control of the calcination temperatures and the maltose content
The structural and textural features as assessed by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and N2-physisorption point out to the formation of t-CuFe2O4 nanophase with crystals sizes in the region of 6–7 nm and high size homogeneity, both in a relatively dense xerogel and in a highly porous aerogel
Summary
Copper ferrite is a ceramic material belonging to a class of metal-oxides of generic formula MFe2O4 where M represents a bi-valent transition metal ion, e.g. Mn2+, Ni2+, Co2+, Cu2+ 1, possessing the spinel structure. Many methods for the synthesis of copper ferrite nanoparticles have been proposed so far, the most common include high temperature solution phase approaches[13], thermal decomposition of nitrates[14], co-precipitation[15], combustion process[16] and sol-gel auto-combustion[17,18]. These methods yield nanoparticles with average dimensions of several tens of nanometres and a poor degree of size and shape homogeneity. The control of the particle size has a major technological importance, because the magnetic and catalytic properties of nanoparticles are highly size dependent[16]
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