Abstract
Zinc and nickel ferrite have been synthesized from metal nitrates using a hydrothermal method to study the structural, thermal, and corrosion properties. The XRD pattern of both zinc and nickel ferrite confirm face centered cubic (FCC) spinel structure with a very small impurity phase of hematite (alpha-Fe2O3). TGA and DSC shows two major weight losses, exothermic and endothermic, corresponding to moisture removal and decomposition of oxides to zinc/nickel ferrite. Sharp Auger electron peaks are visible throughout XPS spectrum of both ferrites. The corrosion protection of zinc ferrite is because of the unavailability of the metal for the redox pair reaction while cobalt ferrite corrosion protection is because of the passivation layer formed over time.