J. Touthang. et al. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application. www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 11, ( Part -6) November 2016, pp.08-11 www.ijera.com 8 | Page Preparation of lithium ferrite nanoparticles by high energy ball milling and characterizations J. Touthang 1 , Mamata Maisnam 1* , W. Surachanda Singh 2 and Sumitra Phanjoubam 2 1 Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Manipur, Langol-795004, India 2 Department of Physics, Manipur University,Canchipur-795003, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Ferrites are ferrimagnetic ceramic materials with inherent useful electromagnetic properties. Of them, spinel- structured ferrites are promising materials for microwave device applications; stress/torsion sensors and energy storage applications like anode materials in lithium batteries, fuel cells, solar cells etc. Nanostructured spinels further have high and wide scope of potential applications. In the present study, two different types of varied sized ferrimagnetic lithium ferrite spinel nanoparticles prepared using chemical sol-gel auto-combustion method were chosen. The prepared spinel particles were heated at 300 ° C for 1h. After heating the powders were milled using a High Energy Ball Mill for 30 minutes to further grind the particles and then subjected to various characterizations. Structural characterization was done using X-Ray Diffraction Method (XRD). The study revealed the spinel structure of these samples. Structural parameter such as lattice constant was determined using XRD data and found that the lattice parameter agrees with the standard data. DLS study found the agglomerations of the nanoparticles. The synthesized nanospinel particles were also characterized by the UV- Vis Spectroscopy, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Finally the magnetic hysteresis properties were studied using a Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). Keywords: Ferrite nanoparticles, Sol-gel auto-combustion method, XRD, FTIR, Magnetization I. INTRODUCTION Ferrimagnetic spinel ferrites have been given considerable interest among the researchers all over the world because of their unique and versatile properties [1]. They are good electromagnetic materials and they have been in use in many technological devices. They crystallized as the spinel AB 2 O 4 , where A and B denotes the lattice sites tetrahedrally and octahedrally coordinated by the oxygen ions [6-7]. Lithium ferrites (Li 0.5 Fe 2.5 O 4 ) which crystallizes in an inverse spinel structure are widely investigated materials due to their importance in construction and engineering of many electrical components. They show interesting properties for the microwave applications such as in circulators, isolators, and phase shifters due to their high resistivity, low dielectric losses, high Curie temperature, square hysteresis loop and low cost [2-5]. By adopting different synthesis route and doping with magnetic or non-magnetic impurities a variety of lithium ferrites not found in nature may be tailored with correlated and interesting electromagnetic properties. Recently, ferrite nanoparticles achieved great attention from researchers worldwide for their diverse novel applications like hyperthermia, ferrofluids, drug delivery, MRI contrast agents etc. Magnetic and electrical behaviours for the nanosized ferrites show different behaviour when compared with their bulk counterparts. In the present study, we report the synthesis of cobalt and yttrium substituted lithium ferrite nanoparticles by chemical sol-gel method and high energy ball milling and the studies of their structural, optical and magnetic properties. II. EXPERIMENTAL Substituted spinel lithium ferrite of varied sized nanoparticles having compositional formula Li 0.495 Co 0.01 Fe 2.495 O 4 (Sample 1), and Li 0.495 Co 0.01 Y 0.10 Fe 2.395 O 4 (Sample 2) were synthesized by chemical sol-gel method. The raw materials used were highly pure lithium nitrate, iron nitrate, cobalt nitrate and yttrium nitrate. The starting materials were taken in stoichiometric proportion and dissolved in ethylene glycol in the ratio 3:1. The mixture was heated at 40 ° C for about 30 min until a clear solution was formed. The temperature was increased to 80 ° C and kept for 20 min and then to 100 ° C. After a few minutes the gel dried and gets self-ignited itself producing a highly voluminous fluffy product. This final product obtained is the as-prepared nanosized substituted lithium ferrite spinels. This product was heated at RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS