Coprecipitation method offers some advantages. They are:
1.Simple and rapid preparation.
2.Easy control of particle size and composition and
3.Various possibilities to modify the particle surface state and overall homogeneity.
Coprecipitation of various salts (nitrates, sulphates, chlorides, perchlorates etc.) under a fine control of pH by using NaOH or NH4OH solutions yields corresponding spinel oxide nanoparticles. For example to prepare ZnFe2O4, zinc nitrate and ferric nitrate are used as starting precursors. The pH of the medium should be above 8 to get the better end product. Particle size of the coprecipitated material is strongly dependent on pH of the precipitation medium and molarity of the starting precursors. Consequently particle size control can be easily achieved.
A crystalline phase is achieved even with a pH around 8 if we use a salt that contain Fe2+ ions (in the case of inverse spinel ferrite). The electron mobility between Fe2+ and Fe3+ acts as the driving force for the spinel phase formation. But when we have to deal with normal spinel ferrites that have only Fe3+ ions we have to increase the pH of the medium to achieve crystallinity. A pH = 12 is desired in this case.
If we increase molarity of the solution, particle size gets reduced. But this size reduction is achieved in the expense of large amount of chemicals. Hence a compromise between this leads us to prefer a moderate molarity for the starting solutions. In our synthesis, we preferred 0.1M and 0.2M solutions to begin the coprecipitation.
1.Simple and rapid preparation.
2.Easy control of particle size and composition and
3.Various possibilities to modify the particle surface state and overall homogeneity.
Coprecipitation of various salts (nitrates, sulphates, chlorides, perchlorates etc.) under a fine control of pH by using NaOH or NH4OH solutions yields corresponding spinel oxide nanoparticles. For example to prepare ZnFe2O4, zinc nitrate and ferric nitrate are used as starting precursors. The pH of the medium should be above 8 to get the better end product. Particle size of the coprecipitated material is strongly dependent on pH of the precipitation medium and molarity of the starting precursors. Consequently particle size control can be easily achieved.
A crystalline phase is achieved even with a pH around 8 if we use a salt that contain Fe2+ ions (in the case of inverse spinel ferrite). The electron mobility between Fe2+ and Fe3+ acts as the driving force for the spinel phase formation. But when we have to deal with normal spinel ferrites that have only Fe3+ ions we have to increase the pH of the medium to achieve crystallinity. A pH = 12 is desired in this case.
If we increase molarity of the solution, particle size gets reduced. But this size reduction is achieved in the expense of large amount of chemicals. Hence a compromise between this leads us to prefer a moderate molarity for the starting solutions. In our synthesis, we preferred 0.1M and 0.2M solutions to begin the coprecipitation.
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