Effect on structural, optical and dielectric properties of mixed (1 − x)ZnFe2O4–xSiO2 as microwave dielectric ceramic material

Abstract

Samples of (1 − x)ZnFe2O4–xSiO2 with different compositions have been prepared using sol–gel method. The morphological structures of the samples were analyzed using AFM and XRD analysis. AFM images show the surface roughness of the produced samples and indicate the surface roughness increased as the compositions of x increased where the average surface roughness to be around 0.30–1.34 nm. XRD analysis indicates the phase formation of cubic structure where dominant peak has been observed with Miller indices (311) at 35.25°. The average crystallite size, D for dominant peak has been calculated with average size to be around ~10 nm. The FTIR analysis indicates the formation of spinel structure for ZnFe2O4 and also the presence of H2O molecules inside the samples. The fabricated patch antenna for samples (x = 0.05, 0.15 and 0.25) gives a good response in return loss analysis which are (>−10 dB).