frustrated spinels showing spin glass like behaviour has also been
reported [5–10]. Geometrical frustration is a phenomenon in which
the geometrical properties of the crystal lattice forbid simultaneous
minimization of the interaction energies acting at a given site. This
may lead to highly degenerate ground states with nonzero entropy
at zero temperature. FeAl2O4 is amixed oxide normal spinel, where
one eighth of the tetrahedral sites are occupied by Fe2+ cations
and one half of the octahedral sites are occupied by Al3+cations.
Sometimes, depending on the synthetic process, the Fe2+ cations
can also occupy octahedral sites [11]. FeAl2O4 provides an excellent
combination of physical and chemical properties. It has high ductility
(fracture-mechanical strength) and flexibility against cracking
and spalling. However, reports on this spinel compound are scarce
and there are hardly any on its magnetic behavior [12–14]. No
long-range magnetic order was detected in FeAl2O4, although the
magnetic susceptibility reveals a maximum close to 12K [13]. The
preparation of FeAl2O4 is gaining importance due to its potential
application as a magnetic material. However, most of the studies
have been done on bulk samples and there are almost no reports
on nanocrystalline FeAl2O4. Hence it was of interest to synthesize
FeAl2O4 nanoparticles and evaluate its properties both from the point of view of its structural modification and its potential applications
as a semi-hard magnetic ceramic. We report for the first time
the synthesis of pure FeAl2O4 nanoparticles by furnace heating of
iron and aluminium acetylacetonate complexes. The nanoparticles
obtained have been characterized thoroughly and their magnetic
properties have been studied. Results of this work are reported
herein.