effect of heat treatment time and temperature on the microstructural characteristics of mechano-thermal synthesized zinc ferrite

in this study, nanostructured zinc ferrite was synthesized by heat treating of mechanically activated mixture of zno and α-fe₂o₃. differential thermal analysis (dta) were used to find the temperature of the reaction in activated mixture. it was found that by 5 h mechanical activation of the powder mixture, zinc ferrite was formed at 750⁰c. the effect of time and temperature of heat treatment on microstructural characteristics of zinc ferrite was investigated by x-ray diffraction method and it was found that thermal treatment at 750⁰c for 2 h led to formation of zinc ferrite with an average crystallite size of about 68 nm. furthermore, the crystallite size increased slightly with increasing of time and temperature of heat treatment, while the lattice strain decreased at the same condition. consequently, the effect of time and temperature of heat treatment on morphology and particle distribution of zinc ferrite samples was investigated by scanning electron microscopy method.