Nanocrystalline Zn ferrite was prepared by high energy ball milling. The formationprocess of the nanocrystalline was investigated by means of the M6ssbauer spectroscopic and XRDmeasurements of samples with difFerent milling time. The results showed that Zn ferrite was formedthrough the mechanochemical reaction of or-Fe2O3 with ZnO after milling about 3 hours and the crFe2O3-ZnO solid solution was the intermediate of the solid state reaction. The distortion in the crystallattice, which caused larger quadrupo...