Master curve generation and modeling of ac conductivity for Mn0.7+xZn0.3SixFe2–2xO4 spinel ferrite system

Abstract

The compositional dependence of ac conductivity ([Formula: see text]), real ([Formula: see text]′) and imaginary ([Formula: see text]′′) parts of complex electric conductivity ([Formula: see text]*) was investigated as a function of temperature ([Formula: see text]) and frequency ([Formula: see text] for Mn[Formula: see text]Zn[Formula: see text]SixFe[Formula: see text]O4, [Formula: see text], 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 spinel ferrite system. The compositional dependence of lattice constant values suggested that the most of the substituted Si[Formula: see text]-ions reside at grain boundaries and only a few Si-ions are inside grains. The variation of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] is explained on the basis of segregation and diffusion of Si[Formula: see text] ions at grain boundaries and grains, respectively, and the electrode effect. Thermal variation of ac conductivity at fixed frequency suggested two different mechanisms which could be responsible for conduction in the system. It is found that [Formula: see text]* is not the preferred presentation for dielectric data and the scaling process of real part of conductivity by normalized frequency and the scaled frequency were found unsuccessful. The fitting results of ac conductivity data with path percolation approximation were found suitable in low-frequency regime while in high-frequency regime, effective medium approximation (EMA) was found successful.