JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS, vol.509, no.9, pp.3717-3722, 2011 (SCI-Expanded)
We investigate the effect of sintering temperature on the structural and magnetic properties of La1.4Ca1.6Mn2O7 double perovskite manganite compound prepared by the sol-gel route. Three sintering temperatures (1273, 1473 and 1673 K) are utilized for the heat treatment. Regardless of the sintering temperature, the tetragonal crystal structure with the I4/mmm space group is stable. However, a reduction in a and an increase in c lattice parameters along with a significant increase in crystallite-size occur on increasing the sintering temperature. This is also accompanied by the growth of grains. Grain-growth and changing crystallite-sizes account for the changes in magnetization, Curie temperature and magnetic entropy-change values. As the sintering temperature increases from 1273 to 1673 K the Curie temperature increases from 225 to 268 K and the magnetic entropy-change increases from 0.58 to 3.1 J kg(-1) K-1 respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.