In this work using the transfer matrix technique we study the Zn concentration, nanoparticles size and shape effects on the band structure of a 1D photonic crystal (PC), made of alternating layers of air and a ferrofluid containing (Co1−x Znx Fe2 O4 ) nanoparticles, coated by oleic acid suspended in ethanol. We found that the photonic band structure (PBS) is shifted to higher frequencies with the increasing of the Zn concentration, size of the nanoparticles and with ferrofluids containing ellipsoidal instead of spherical nanoparticles. However, the difference in the shifting of the PBS due to oblate or prolate ellipsoidal nanoparticles, is negligible. The effects of the Zn concentration, the width of the ferrofluid and air layers, as well as their dielectric constant on the PBS, allow us to propose photonic quantum wells (QWs) by means of which we can have very well defined frequency regions to transmit or reflect electromagnetic waves to be used in technologycal applications. We also extend our analysis considering disipative effects in the ferrofluid layers, and we found a considerable reduction of the transmission power as the number N of layer period is increased.