Mild hydrothermal synthesis and ferrimagnetism of Pr3Fe5O12 and Nd3Fe5O12 garnets

Two pure light rare earth iron garnets Pr₃Fe₅O₁₂ and Nd₃Fe₅O₁₂ single crystals were synthesized under mild hydrothermal conditions and structurally characterized by single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction methods. Both compounds crystallize in cubic space group Ia3?d with lattice parameters a=12.670(2) Å for Pr₃Fe₅O₁₂ and a=12.633(2) Å for Nd₃Fe₅O₁₂, respectively. The synthesis of compounds was studied with regard to phase evolution and morphology development with hydrothermal conditions. We proposed the formation mechanisms and formulated a reasonable explanation for their growth habits. Ferrimagnetic Curie temperatures which have been inferred from thermo-magnetization curves were 580 K for Pr₃Fe₅O₁₂ and 565 K for Nd₃Fe₅O₁₂, and the transitions of long range order were also evidenced by differential scanning calorimetry method. The result of magnetic properties has shown that moments of the large radius Pr³⁺ and Nd³⁺ ions are parallelly coupled with net moments of iron ions.