Carbon nanotube template-assisted synthesis of zinc ferrite nanochains

We synthesized zinc ferrite nanochains, assembled from nanoparticles, using a carbon nanotubes (CNTs) template method. The resulting nanochains were systematically characterized with respect to crystal structure, morphology, elemental composition, magnetic properties and specific surface area by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry, and the N2 adsorption method. The morphology results showed that the zinc ferrite particles with diameters of 10–20 nm were structurally linked to form nanochains. The magnetic property investigation indicated that the zinc ferrite nanochains exhibited ferromagnetic behavior and possessed a saturation magnetization of 45.4 emu g−1 at 300 K. We addressed the growth mechanism by analyzing the experimental conditions and characterization results. This method may be applicable to synthesizing other metal oxide nanochains as well.