Structural, dielectric, electric and magnetic properties of magnesium substituted lithium nanoferrites

Abstract

Magnesium substituted Li-ferrites nanoparticles with chemical composition Li0.5-0.5xMgxFe2.5-0.5xO4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) synthesized by sol-gel auto combustion method. Synthesized materials were sintered at 600 °C for 4 h in the air and heated samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) techniques. Rietveld refinement of XRD patterns confirmed the formation of the spinel structure where the lattice constant varied with the increase of Mg content. The crystallite size of magnesium-substituted lithium ferrites was calculated using Scherrer's equation and showed slight changes while the W-H plot shows more changes. The electrical conductivity and activation energy of Mg-substituted lithium ferrite were strongly affected by Mg content and by which they appear to confirm to semiconductor nature. The paramagnetic transition to ferrite was confirmed by the change in the Arrhenius plot, which showed a large variation between two regions that differ in the values of the activation energy, where the values of activation energies in the ferrite region were greater than those that appeared in the para region, as well as the variation between the activation energy values in the non-substituted lithium ferrite. The dielectric parameters such as the real part of the dielectric constant and loss tangent of the samples were analyzed in the range of 50 Hz to 5 MHz at room temperature, 100, 300, and 500 °C. Curie's temperature showed a decrease with the increase in Mg content. Hysteresis loops were measured using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) where both the temperature and the applied magnetic field were changed. The FC result of Li0.5-0.5xMgxFe2.5-0.5xO4 (x = 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6) is almost flat below TB which demonstrates that the Li–Mg nano ferrites show a super-spin glass behaviour.