Structural, optical, magnetic properties and energy-band structure of MFeO (M = Co, Fe, Mn) nanoferrites prepared by co-precipitation technique.

MFeO (M = Co, Fe, Mn) nanoparticles were successfully formed through the chemical co-precipitation technique. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis were used to investigate samples' structural properties. The investigated structural properties included phases formed, crystallite size, cation distribution, hopping length, bond length, bond angle, edge length, and shared and unshared octahedral edge length. Scanning electron micrographs of the prepared samples demonstrated well-defined crystalline nanoparticles. The grain diameter was 15, 9, and 34 nm for CoFeO, FeO, and MnFeO, respectively. The energy-dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the existence of every element (Co, Fe, and O) and no discernible impurities in the samples. The optical properties were studied in detail through photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The presence of active modes in Raman spectra confirmed the spinel structure of the MFeO nanoparticles. The direct bandgap energy estimated through UV-visible spectroscopy was about 2.59-2.64 eV, corresponding with the energy-band structures of the octahedral site (1.70 eV) and the tetrahedral site (0.9 eV). This result was further confirmed by PL emission spectra. Based on Mie theory and UV-visible and PL spectral data, the mechanism of photothermal characterization for MFeO nanoparticles was determined. Investigating the changes in temperature of magnetic parameters including coercivity, squareness ratio, and saturation magnetization for MFeO samples showed the dominant influence of ion distribution and A-A, A-B, and B-B exchange interactions. This study also showed that strong anisotropy and weak dipolar interaction tended to increase the coercivity and squareness ratio of CoFeO. Conversely, weaker anisotropy and stronger dipolar interaction corresponded with the small coercivity and squareness ratio of FeO and MnFeO samples.