Correlation between structural and magnetic properties of substituted (Cd, Zr) cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Abstract

This work correlates the magnetic properties to the microstructure of the calcined nanocrystalline CdxCo1-xZr0.05Fe1.95O4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3 in a step of 0.05) powders produced by Pechini sol–gel method. The dry gel was grinded and calcined at 700 °C in a static air atmosphere for 1 h. The thermal decomposition process of dried gel was studied by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) combined with differential analysis (DTA). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were carried out to investigate the structural bonds identification, crystallographic properties, morphology and magnetic properties of the obtained powders. The XRD pattern of the samples showed that the synthesized materials were of a single cubic phase with the nanocrystalline Co–Zr–Cd ferrite which had an average crystallite size of 32–40 nm and particle size of 55 nm resulted from FE-SEM. The magnetic properties were measured from the hysteresis loops. The magnetic measurements had indicated that the coercivity and the magnetization decreased by increasing the Cd content.