Generalized Preparation of Porous Nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 Superstructures from Zinc Ferrioxalate Precursor and Its Superparamagnetic Property

In this paper, porous nanocrystalline ZnFe 2 O 4 “timber-like” superstructures were synthesized through the thermal decomposition of zinc ferrioxalate precursor prepared from metal sulfates and sodium oxalate without adding any additives. The resulting ZnFe 2 O 4 superstructures were systematically characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). We found that the porous nanocrystalline ZnFe 2 O 4 superstructures exhibited superparamagnetic properties at room temperature. These porous nanocrystalline ZnFe 2 O 4 superstructures may be applied in magnetic devices. Meanwhile, this general approach could be extended to synthesize porous nanocrystalline CoFe 2 O 4 and NiFe 2 O 4 “timber-like” superstructures.