TITLE:
Effect of Sintering Temperature on Co0.5 Zn0.5 Fe2 O4 Nano-Particles Evolution and Particle Size Distribution
AUTHORS:
Abubakar Yakubu, Zulkifly Abbas, Mansor Hashim, Ahmad Fahad
KEYWORDS:
Sintering, Temperature, Mechanical Alloy, Agglomerate, Nanoparticles
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Nanoparticles,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
8,
2015
ABSTRACT: This study involves an investigation to ascertain the effect of sintering temperature on the particle
size distribution of Co0.5 Zn0.5 Fe2O4 nano-particle. The effect of the sintering temperature towards
diffusion of CoO and ZnO into the tetrahedral and octahedral sites was also reported. In this study,
CoO, ZnO and Fe2O3 powders were mechanically alloyed to synthesize fine powders of Co0.5 Zn0.5 Fe2O4 nano-particles. The synthesized powder was then sintered at various temperatures which
were employed to study the effect of sintering temperature on the materials. Further analysis was
done using XRD to investigate the phases of the powder and the crystallite size using Scherrer
equation, SEM and EDX for the morphology and elemental composition of samples. The XRD spectra
indicated that Both ZnO and CoO powder reacted well during sintering, however, ZnO was first
to diffuse into its crystallographic sites before CoO. While the particle size distribution increases
as the sintering temperature increases. Amongst other findings, it was confirmed that sintering
temperature affects the particle size distribution of samples and samples begin to agglomerate at
temperature above 700°C.