Influence of Annealing Temperature on Structural, Morphological, Optical, Magnetic, and Antimicrobial Properties of Zinc Ferrite Nanoparticles

In the present work, raw materials, namely zinc acetate dihydrate, iron nitrate nonahydrate, and solvent 2-methoxyethanol, were utilized to synthesize zinc ferrite nanoparticles by sol–gel method. The synthesized material was annealed at different temperatures of 500 °C, 600 °C, and 700 °C to study its effect on morphological, optical, and magnetic properties. Formation of single phase spinel cubic structure with intense peak orientation along (311) direction was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction pattern. FESEM and EDX spectra of the annealed samples confirmed the surface morphology and elemental composition. UV–visible spectral analysis was used to examine the optical properties of the samples. VSM at room temperature revealed the ferromagnetic behavior of zinc ferrite nanoparticles. All the prepared samples at different annealing temperatures showed good antibacterial properties against different bacterial strains.