Ferritas de cobre e zinco do tipo espinélio sintetizadas pelos métodos: hidrotermal assistido por micro-ondas, precursores poliméricos, reação no estado sólido e decomposição térmica

Abstract

Ferrites are well studied materials due to their wide application as: gas detector, optical, electronic and magnetic devices, catalyst and pigments. In the synthesis of materials, the properties are extremely influenced by the synthesis method. In this work, four methods were used in the synthesis of spinel ferrites with composition Zn1-xCuxFe2O4 (x = 0,0; 0,25; 0,50; 0,75; 1,0). These were: microwave assisted hydrothermal method (HMO), polymeric precursor (PP), solid state reaction (ES) and thermal decomposition (CA). The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), surface area analysis by the BET method e field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FE-SEM). The synthesis realized with different methods presented very distinct results according to the characterization methods. The sample with composition Zn0,75Cu0,25Fe2O4 was selected as standard for comparison among the applied methods. Samples obtained by the hydrothermal method presented high surface area (128 m2.g-1) and using the particle size obtained by BET and crystallite size calculated from the XRD patterns, it was estimated that there is about 1 crystallite per particle. All samples had high short- and long-range disorder. The sample synthesized by de PP method presented the highest crystallinity, with high short and long range order, leading to a high photoconductivity, intermediary surface area due to the sintering among small particles. The CA method presented an intermediate characteristic between the PP and ES methods. Comparing to HMO method, the PP, ES and CA ones presented small surface areas (not exceeding 2 m2.g-1), and about 9 times more crystallites per particle. Generally, the formation of ZnFe2O4 spinel was achieved by all methods applied, with the synthesis of CuFe2O4 was not possible depending on the reaction media or at lower temperatures.