Facile synthesis, thermal, magnetic, Raman characterizations of spinel structure ZnMn2O4

Spinel structure ZnMn2O4 was synthesized by a facile method with lower reaction temperature, shorter reaction time and without regrinding starting materials compared with the traditional solid state reactions. A reaction mechanism was deduced according to the analysis results. The obtained ZnMn2O4 shows high crystalline quality with high degree of dispersion for metals ions and the absence of phase separation or clustering. ZnMn2O4 shows a phase transition at about 600 °C instead of a decomposition reaction in the temperature range of 20–1100 °C and an antiferromagnetic behavior with the Néel temperature of about 15 K. Six Raman modes are observed in the room temperature Raman spectrum of ZnMn2O4.