Mechanosynthesis of nanocrystalline MgFe2O4—neutron diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy

The evolution of nanocrystalline n-MgFe2O4 by high-energy milling a mixture of MgO and α-Fe2O3 for periods of between 0 h and 12 h has been investigated by neutron diffraction in addition to previous Mössbauer, XRD and HRTEM measurements. Complete transformation of the milled products to n-MgFe2O4 only occurs on milling to ∼8 h even though the average particle size decreases to < ∼10 nm after milling for 2 h. The applied field Mössbauer spectra of n-MgFe2O4 can be well described by two subspectra representing core and shell regions with different cation distributions and spin canting angles. The neutron pattern of nanocrystalline MgFe2O4 is described well by two components comprising nanoparticles of core and shell dimensions ∼7(1) nm and ∼0.7(1) nm, respectively, in support of the Mössbauer core-shell model. © 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

Neutron diffraction, Spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Nanoparticles, Nanocrystals, Cations

Citation

Šepelák, V., Bergmann, I., Feldhoff, A., Litterst, F. J., Becker, K. D., Cadogan, J. M., Hofmann, M., Hoelzel, M., Wang, J. L., Avdeev, M., & Campbell, S. J. (2010). Mechanosynthesis of nanocrystalline MgFe2O4—neutron diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Hyperfine Interactions, 198, 67–71. doi:10.1007/s10751-010-0243-y