On the structural and magnetic properties of SbxY3-xFe5O12 nanostructures synthesized by bottom-up and top-down methods

Abstract

In this paper, we synthesized and characterized doped SbxY3-xFe5O12 (x = 0.2) nanostructures with Sb for the first time by employing co-precipitation, sol-gel, auto-combustion, and ball-milling methods. We fabricated SbxY3-xFe5O12 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2) using different methods and investigated processing-microstructure-magnetic properties correlation by studying particle size, bond length, and bond angles. We figured out that the synthesized sol-gel nanostructures possessed the optimal properties among the approaches used in this study. The formation of secondary phases Sb2O4 and Fe2O3 in all synthesized nanostructures was initially identified by X-ray diffraction and then confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Moreover, the displacement and diffusion in the FTIR results confirmed the formation of garnet (YIG) phase, although the antimony is not fully interred into the structure. It was determined how much antimony was entered into the garnet structure. Lattice parameters, the weight fraction of phases, d-spacing, occupation, microstrain, X-ray density, bond lengths, and bond angles were calculated by Rietveld refinement. Particle size was determined 60–111 nm by using the Williamson-Hall method. It has been elaborated that reducing the particle size and bond length enhancing the bond angle dismissed magnetism. The magnetic properties of the nanostructures were examined by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). We studied the correlation between Sb content and saturation magnetization of nanostructures and found that it drops from 26.594 to 18.727 (emu/g) when Sb is increased from 0 to 0.2. It has been detailed how alteration in bonding length, angle, and particle size influence coercivity so that it decreases initially and is followed by an increase. The implication of the research outcomes for nanotechnology applications such as microwave electromagnetic absorption and frequency-agile antennas wireless communication is discussed.