Iron environment non-equivalence in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites in NiFe2O4 nanoparticles: study using Mössbauer spectroscopy with a high velocity resolution

Abstract

Mössbauer spectrum of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles was measured at room temperature in 4096 channels. This spectrum was fitted using various models, consisting of different numbers of magnetic sextets from two to twelve. Non-equivalence of the 57Fe microenvironments due to various probabilities of different Ni2+ numbers surrounding the octahedral and tetrahedral sites was evaluated and at least 5 different microenvironments were shown for both sites. The fit of the Mössbauer spectrum of NiFe 2O4 nanoparticles using ten sextets showed some similarities in the histograms of relative areas of sextets and calculated probabilities of different Ni2+ numbers in local microenvironments. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.