Sonochemical synthesis and chracterization of Mn3O4 nanoparticles

We report on the synthesis of Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) using a novel sonochemical method without requiring any pH adjustment. Synthesized material was identified as tetragonal hausmannite crystal structure model of Mn₃O₄ from XRD analysis. Crystallite size was estimated from x-ray line profile fitting to be 17±5 nm. FTIR analysis revealed stretching vibrations of metal ions in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination confirming the crystal structure. TEM analysis revealed a dominantly cubic morphology of NPs with an average size of ∼20 nm. Magnetic evaluation revealed a blocking temperature, T _B of 40 K above which the material behaves paramagnetic. Asymmetric coercive field is attributed to the interaction between ferromagnetic Mn₃O₄ and antiferromagnetic Mn oxide at the surface of nanoparticles.