Generalized Preparation of Porous Nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 Superstructures from Zinc Ferrioxalate Precursor and Its Superparamagnetic Property

In this paper, porous nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 "timber-like" superstructures were synthesized through the thermal decomposition of zinc ferrioxalate precursor prepared from metal sulfates and sodium oxalate without adding any additives. The resulting ZnFe2O4 superstructures were systematically characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). We found that the porous nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 superstructures exhibited superparamagnetic properties at room temperature. These porous nanocrystalline ZnFe2O4 superstructures may be applied in magnetic devices. Meanwhile, this general approach could be extended to synthesize porous nanocrystalline CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4 "timber-like" superstructures.