Structural, optical and magnetic studies of vanadium ferrite and silver doped vanadium ferrite by sol–gel method

Abstract

Nanoscience and nanotechnology is an important emerging field of Research and Development focusing on the artificially fabricated structures in the nanometre range. A simple route to synthesize Nanoferrites is sol–gel method and it has numerous advantages as it is a low temperature process. It helps us to attain uniformity at the molecular level. Sol-gel process offers efficient and high purity production of nano powders. The precursors are taken as Vanadium Nitrate, Silver Nitrate and Ferric Nitrate. The crystalline nature and the structure of the synthesized nanoferrites are confirmed from X-Ray diffraction analysis. The crystalline nature of the synthesized material are confirmed from the presence of peaks and the average crystallite size of the material are calculated using Scherer formula. The strain (ε) and dislocation density (δ) of the materials are also calculated from XRD data. The functional groups of the samples are conformed from Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The optical properties of the samples were investigated by UV–Vis absorption at room temperature. The optical band energy (Eg) at the edge of absorption band has been determined by the Tauc relation using UV–VIS spectroscopic data. The surface morphology reveals that the grains were distributed over the surface uniformly. The magnetic properties are studied using Vibrating Sample Magnetometer at room temperature and it is found that the both the materials exhibits super paramagnetic behavior. This significant property of these types of ferrites suggests that they can be used in fabrication of magnetic and energy storage media.