Tailoring the Structural, Magnetic and Dielectric properties of Ni-Zn-CdFe2O4 spinel ferrites by the substitution of Lanthanum ions

Abstract

In this paper, we have tailored the structural, magnetic and dielectric properties of Ni0.5Zn0.3Cd0.2Fe2-yLayO4 (y = 0.0–0.21) nano-structured spinel ferrites by the substitution of La3+ ions. The investigated samples were synthesized by Sol-gel auto-combustion method and were characterized using XRD, SEM, VSM, FTIR and dielectric measurements. Single phase nanostructure formation of synthesized material was confirmed by XRD analysis. The effect of La3+ ions on crystallite size, grain size, lattice constant and bulk densities was calculated and it was found that lattice constant first increased upto concentration y = 0.105 then decreased with further substitution of dopant ions. FTIR results for all synthesized samples demonstrated two absorption bands at υ1 = 540.8 cm−1 and υ2 = 490.8 cm−1 corresponds to tetrahedral and octahedral sites of spinel structure respectively. With the increase in La3+ ions concentration, saturation magnetization and remanence both found to be decreased down to lowest Ms value of 34.1 emu/g which is not yet reported in the literature according to best of our knowledge. Dielectric results showed that by decreasing frequency, both dielectric loss and dielectric constant decreases. AC conductivity has two regions, at low frequency region ac conductivity increases while at high frequency region, it decreases with increasing frequency. The measured results for all synthesized nano-ferrites suggested that synthesized nanoferrites are recommended for high frequency and microwave absorbing applications.