Abstrait

Doping Effect of Zinc on the Structural, Morphological and Magnetic Properties of Mn Ferrites

Anjali Shrivastava*, A. K. Shrivastava

Manganese Ferrite (MnFe₂O₄) has ever been of great importance for their remarkable soft-magnetic properties, such as low coercivity and moderate saturation magnetization. Doping has always been found to affect the basic properties of the host material. With this concept in mind in the present work, Manganese Ferrite (MnFe₂O₄), host material, was doped with Zn in different proportions to have Mn_1-xZnxFe₂O₄. Surfactant was used to limit the particle size in nano range. Co-precipitation method was used for the synthesis of nano particles. Material so obtained was annealed at 200 degree centigrade. All the samples were characterized using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectrometer (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDAX) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) for their structural, morphological, compositional and magnetic characterization, respectively. XRD confirms the presence of single phase cubic spinel structure in all the ferrite samples. Structural parameters such as lattice parameter, crystallite size, x-ray density and lattice strain were calculated from XRD data. The crystallite size, as calculated from Scherrer formula for all the samples are of the order of 6 nm-11 nm. Morphological studies show spherical shaped irregular size particles. The saturation magnetization (Ms) is found maximum for MnFe₂O₄. It decreases on Zn doping with a change in its magnetic behaviour.