Low temperature synthesis of magnesium doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles and their structural properties

The present work focuses on the effect of magnesium (Mg 2+ ) substitution on structural studies of the nanocrystalline cobalt ferrite (CoFe 2 O 4 ).Nanosized magnesium doped cobalt ferrite powders with general formula Co 1-x Mg x Fe 2 O 4 (for x = 0.0, 0.50 and 1.0) were synthesized by sol-gel auto combustion method starting from metal nitrates and citric acid (C 6 H 8 O 7 ) as a fuel.The prepared samples were sintered at 550 ˚C for 4 h.The structural properties were estimated from X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies.The average particle size was calculated by using Debye Scherer's formula using XRD data and is obtained to be 11-24 nm.The bulk densities (d B ) of all the samples were measured using Archimedes principle.The other structural parameters such as tetrahedral bond length (d AX ), octahedral bond length (d BX ), tetra edge (d AXE ) and octa edge (d BXE ) were calculated from XRD data.