Rare earth element (REE) lanthanum substituted MnFe2O4 nanoparticles for photocatalytic and magneto-optical properties

Abstract

Nanocrystalline spinel MnLaxFe2-xO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) was synthesized by microwave combustion technique (MCT) utilizing the fuel urea. The establishment of cubic spinel is ensured by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and the crystal size was found to exist in the range of 27.52 to 13.12 nm for spinel MnLaxFe2-xO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) nanoparticles (NPs). Further morphology of the MnLaxFe2-xO4 NPs was observed by high resolution scanning electron microscope (HR-SEM). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) studies confirmed the formation pure spinel ferrite structure as it ensured the presence of all the elements. The appearance of Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) band at 420, 450 cm-1 , is linked to octahedral-metal stretching (Ni-O) and band at 575 cm-1 , is linked to the tetrahedral metal stretching (Fe-O), which ensures the formation spinel MnLaxFe2- xO4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) nanoparticles. Finally, the magnetic properties such as Mr, Hc and Ms were calculated from the M-H loops which exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour.