Effects of Magnesia Content on Spinel Magnesium Ferrite Formation

The goal of this research is to prepare magnesium ferrite spinel solid solution with magnesia-rich composition, MgFe2O4. (n-1)MgO, in one step by simple method. The structural and morphology properties of the resulting materials were determined by XRD, SEM and EDX techniques. The as prepared samples show the formation of sponge-like materials. The XRD measurements showed that the as synthesized samples consisted entirely of well crystalline spinel magnesium ferrite, MgFe2O4, as a single phase. The presence of magnesium ferrite in excess amount of magnesia brought about formation of magnesium ferrite spinel solid solution with magnesia-rich composition. However, the excess amount of magnesia resulted in a decrease in both the degree of crystallinity and lattice constant with subsequent an increase in the density of the investigated compounds. The crystallite size was decrease as the magnesia content increases with subsequent contraction in the ferrite lattices. The gradient and homogeneity of elementary species included in MgFe2O4. (n-1)MgO system contains were discussed.