Preparation of lightweight nanocrystalline and mesoporous barium ferrite (BaM)

We aim to reduce the density of BaM (BaFe₁₂O₁₉) as much as possible and we do succeed reducing it by approximately 49%. We prepared BaM by sol-gel technology, adding the sol in organic amine. In the full paper, we explain our experimental research in much detail; here we give only a briefing. We characterized the samples with TG (thermogravimetry), DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), XRD (X-ray diffraction) and FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared) techniques. We found that the n-butylaine's templet action was better than those of triethylamine and triethanolamine. Employing N₂ absorption-desorption isotherms, we obtained the following results: (1) mesopores that were nearly uniform in diameter, the average diameter being 9.42 nm; (2) with an addition of 40 wt% of n-butylaine, the specific pore volume was 0.026 cm³/g, and density was 2.73 g/cm³ (the standard density of BaM is 5.32 g/cm³). Again, under an addition of 40 wt% of n-butylaine, we, employing AJ-III AFM (atom force microscopy), found that the crystalline structure of BaM was good, the average particle size was 119.550 nm, and the minimum particle size was 22.039 nm.