Synthesis and Characterization of Rare Earth Gd3plus Substituted Ni Co Nanoferrites by Sol Gel Technique

Abstract

In this present work, a systematic effort was made to study the structural, newlinemicrostructural, optical, magnetic and dielectrical properties of Gd3+ doped newlinenanocrystalline nickel-cobalt ferrites prepared by sol-gel synthesis route. newlineIn summary, the ultrafine nanoparticles of gadolinium (Gd3+) doped Ni-Co ferrite for newlinethe composition of Ni0.5Co0.5GdyFe2-yO4 where, y = 0.025, 0.050, 0.075, 0.100, 0.125 newlineand 0.150 were successfully synthesized using sol-gel auto combustion technique and newlinecitric acid as a fuel. Gadolinium (Gd3+) substitution has carried about noteworthy newlineimprovement in the structural, microstructural, optical, magnetic and dielectric newlineproperties of mixed Ni-Co ferrite. newlineThe XRD analysis confirmed the formation of nanocrystalline cubic spinel structure newlinewithout any impurity phases for all the samples. The average crystallite size of newlinesynthesized nanoparticles was calculated by Debye-Scherer formula which obtained newlinein the range of 27 nm to 33 nm. The lattice constant shows increase with the newlinesubstitution of Gd3+ attributed to the larger ionic radii of Gd3+ (1.05 Å) rare earth ions newlineas compared to Fe3+ (0.60 Å) ions obeying the Vegards law. The X-ray density and newlinebulk density values increases as gadolinium concentration x increases. The grain size newlinedetermined from scanning electron microscopy technique is of the order of 110-128 newlinenm. The energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) patterns of the prepared newlineNi0.5Co0.5GdyFe2-yO4 (y=0.025 - 0.150) samples confirm the presence of Ni2+, Co2+, newlineGd3+, Fe3+ and O2- elements for the prepared samples in proper proportions suggested newlinethat expected stoichiometry was maintained in the prepared samples with an error of newline1 2%. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study demonstrated that spherical, newlineuniform nanocrystalline powders were magnificently synthesized. TEM results also newlinesupported the approximate sizes of the nanoparticles initially derived from XRD data. newlineThe SAED pattern shows bright intense ring of (311) plane showing the formation of newlinespinel ferrite sample. The FTIR spectra were reco