Effect of doping of Zn–Zr binary mixtures on CoFe2-2xZnxZrxO4 (x=0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5) for the hyperthermia application

Abstract

CoFe2-2xZnxZrxO4 spinel ferrites with different amounts of x (0, 0.1, 0.25 & 0.5) were successfully synthesized by the ball milling process to be used properly in hyperthermia application. At first, the materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier-transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), and the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Then, the specific absorption rates of the samples were studied under adiabatic conditions. The effect of the x values on the lattice constant ‘α’, the unit cell volume and nanoparticles agglomeration was then investigated, by XRD, TEM and FESEM analysis. X-ray diffraction patterns for all samples showed cubic spinel structure formation with a particle size below 100 nm. According to the VSM data, simultaneously doping Zn2+ and Zr4+ as the non-magnetic ions into the tetrahedral positions made changes in Ms, Hc and Mr. Based on these characterizations, it could be suggested that the SAR value strongly depends on the particle size and saturation magnetization. Therefore, the highest value of SAR was estimated to be about 16.04 W g−1, which belonged to the ferrite specimen with x = 0.5 (CoFe0.5Zn0.5Zr0.5O4). It is, therefore, expected that the CoFe2-2xZnxZrxO4 ferrites could serve as potential candidates for hyperthermia application.