Physico-Chemical nanomaterials science

Effect of Zn addition on structural, magnetic properties and antistructural modeling of Mg0.7−xZnxNi0.3Fe2O4 nano ferrites 
Satalkar M.1, Tiwati P1,2, Tatarchuk T. R.3, Mazaleyrat4 F., Kane S. N.1
1 School of Physics, D. A. University, Khandwa Road, Indore - 452001, India
2 Dept. of Phys., Prestige Inst. of Eng., Mgmt. and Research, Indore-452010, India
3 Department of Chemistry, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 57, Shevchenko Str., Ivano-Frankivsk, 76018, Ukraine
4 SATIE, ENS Universite Paris-Saclay, 61 Av. Pdt. Wilson, 94230, Cachan, France
E-mail of corresponding author: tatarchuk.tetyana@gmail.com

 Fig. 1: Hysteresis loops Inset (a), (b) composition dependent Ms, Hc.

Among other spinel ferrites, Mg-Ni-Zn ferrite have gained substantial attention of researchers due to their wide-ranging applications (microwave absorption, transformers, magnetic storage etc) and excellent structural and magnetic properties, which can be modify by substitution of non-magnetic cations: Mg, Zn. Replacement of a non-magnetic cation (Mg) by another non-magnetic cation (Zn) would produce noticeable effects on structural, magnetic properties of magnesium-nickel ferrite. Therefore, present study reports the Zn substitution assisted changes in cation distribution, and its consequences on structural, magnetic properties of Mg0.7-xZnxNi0.3Fe2O4 (x = 0.0 - 0.7) ferrite, synthesized via sol-gel auto combustion method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) measure-ments were used to obtain complementary information on structural and magnetic properties. XRD confirms the formation of cubic spinel phase with crystallite size rangingbetween 40.06 - 42.89 nm. The force constants (tetrahedral (A): KT, octa-hedral (B): KO) shows decrease of KT with tetrahedral bond length and increase of KO with octahedral bond length. New anti-structural modeling which describes active surface centers for studied system is also discussed. Coercivity Hc (64.57 - 107 Oe) decreases linearly with Zn content, whereas saturation magnetization Ms (24.68 - 57.55 Am2 kg-1) increases for (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.3), and reduces for (0.3< x ≤ 0.7), shown in fig. 1, accredited to the obtained distri-bution of cations on sites  A, B.