Synthesis, characterization and gas sensitivity investigation of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles

Abstract

Nickel zinc ferrite nanoparticles with diameters less than 20nm were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The synthesized nanoparticles were annealed at 500°C. Two types of samples (powder and disk) were prepared. The disk sample was prepared by pressing the powder sample. Magnetic and structural properties of the products were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and alternating gradient-force magnetometer (AGFM). The X-ray analysis shows that the formation of the synthesized nickel zinc ferrite is spinell. The average crystalline size for nickel zinc ferrite powder was found around 19nm (calculated by Debye-Scherer formula).The formation, size and the uniformity of the samples were determined by TEM. It was found that the size of nanoparticles should be around 18nm from the SEM image. AGFM diagrams shows that the magnetization of the powder sample at the 9kOe is 21.5emu/g that of disk sample is 33emu/g. Therefore, the magnetization was increased by pressing the nickel zinc ferrite nanoparticles. Sensor sensitivity of this disk ferrite is investigated in an isolated box. For this purpose, the samples are injected to this box and six gases (ethanol, methanol, chloroform, acetonitrile, acetone and methane) are exposed to the ferrite by a mechanical gate. The acetonitrile had the best sensitivity performance.