An Investigative Study on the effect of Dopants on Manganese Based Mixed Nano Ferrites Synthesized through Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

The present article investigates the effect of different dopants on manganese based mixed nano ferrites synthesized through sol-gel method.MnF, MnCoF and MnCoMgF (MnFe2O4, Mn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4andMn0.5Co0.25Mg0.25Fe2O4) were synthesized by Sol-gel method. The structural, magnetic and optical properties of the samples were analysed through XRD(X-RayDiffractometer), VSM (Vibrating Sample Magnetometer,) and UV-Visible Spectroscopy. The phase identification and lattice parameter determination were carried out by using X-RayDiffraction and hence the crystallite size and X-Ray density were calculated. Peaks (220), (311), (400), (511), and (440) were obtained from the XRDpattern of the samples, which confirmed their single-phase cubic spinel structure. It was observed that because of the large ionic radius of Co2+ (0.745 Å) ions as compared to that of Fe3+ (0.645 Å) ions, lattice parameter of MnCoF increased in comparison with that of MnF but, the substitution of Mg2+ to MnCoF sample decreased the lattice constant. By investigating the hysteresis loops produced by the samples in the VSM analyses, it was found that the MnF have low coercivity and moderate saturation magnetization amongst the three. The substitution of Mg2+ in MnCoF sample decreased the value of saturation magnetization. UV-Visible analysis was used to determine bandgap energy of three samples.From the Tauc plot, we can observe bandgap energies of 3.202 eV, 3.180 eV and 3.239 eV, for MnF, MnCoF and MnCoMgF respectively.On substituting with the Co2+ in MnF the band gap of sample decreases indicating quantum confinement phenomenon.When substitution was done both Co2+ and Mg2+, the band gap energy value increases.