Structural, cation distribution, magnetic and electrical properties of Co0.5Zn0.5-xNdxFe2O4 nano-ferrite

Rare earth ion Nd+3 doped Co0.5Zn0.5-xNdxFe2O4 (x = 0.00 to 0.05) (CZNFO) nano-sized ferrite have been successfully constructed by self-ignited sol-gel method using citric acid (C6H8O7) as a chelating agent. The structural and morphology were satisfied by XRD patterns and FE-SEM microscopy, respectively. XRD spectra witnessed single phase without additional peaks, other than spinel type structure i.e., cubic structure with space group Fd-3 m as reported in JCPDS card No 22-1086. Rietvield refinement operation is done for gaining, lattice parameters, unit-cell volume and bond length. The evaluated crystallite sizes for CZNFO are 5-13 nm from Debye Scherrer equation, and additionally microstrain and dislocation density are estimated for pure and dopants. The inspection of cation distribution was done by the help of cation occupancy data. The morphology of grain is filament shaped and densely agglomerated with reducing of their grain size from 99.5 to 28 nm for each doping level, the reduced size impacts on the alteration of magnetic and electric properties. Extent to this, Fe-O bond and presence of tetrahedral (416 cm(-1)) and octahedral (570 cm(-1)) complexes were supported by FT-IR spectra, vibrating sample magnetometer executes a ferrimagnetic nature and downscale in the magnetic saturation as addition of Nd+3. Further, an applied frequency responses of dielectric constant and tan (delta) are significantly denote in higher frequency and firmly agree with Koop's and Maxwell Wagner theory of polarization. The non-Debye type of relaxation process is executed by impedance spectra study. Further the Cole-Cole fitted plot describes an approval of contribution of grain boundaries over grains with notable of semi-circle nature for each level of Nd dopant. Finally frequency dependent relative permeability at room temperature shows the decay in all doping composition and supports the good in electrical properties for rare earth ions.