Low-temperature wet chemistry synthetic approaches towards ferrites

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry frontiers 2020-09, Vol.7 (18), p.3282-3314
• Main Authors: Diodati, Stefano, Walton, Richard I, Mascotto, Simone, Gross, Silvia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barium hexaferrite; Biomedical materials; Bismuth ferrite; Catalysis; Functional materials; Inorganic chemistry; Low temperature; Magnetic properties; Perovskites; Piezoelectricity; Sol-gel processes; Thermal decomposition
• ISSN: 2052-1545; 2052-1553
• DOI: 10.1039/d0qi00294a

Ferrites are a broad class of iron-containing oxides that includes spinel ferrites MFe2O4, perovskites MFeO3, and hexagonal ferrites (hexaferrites) such as BaFe12O19. These materials have a wide array of applications owing to their diverse properties: notable instances include catalysis, piezoelectric components, magnetic components, biomedical applications, heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. Given the growing importance of environmentally friendly, low-temperature methodologies to obtain functional materials, there is a growing interest in synthetic approaches which are compatible with the principles of “green chemistry”. In this context, wet chemistry represents an attractive choice, and furthermore offers the possibility of scale-up for manufacture of materials in volumes for practical application. Though there is a sizeable amount of literature on the synthesis of ferrites, the most common approaches require treatments at temperatures above 200 °C, either as the main synthetic procedure itself (thermal decomposition), or as a post-synthetic step (for example, calcination after sol–gel autocombustion). This review aims at summarising, categorising, classifying and critically discussing the different low-temperature (