Effect of Ce-Co Substitution on the Structural, Electrical and Dielectric Properties of Mn Spinel Nanoferrites

The chemical co-precipitation method has been employed to synthesize a series of spinel nanoferrites with composition Mn1-yCoyFe2-xCexO4 and was characterized by the TGA/DTG, FTIR, XRD, DC electrical resistivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor measurements. The FTIR spectrum of annealed sample shows only two peaks at 460 and 590cm(-1) which are related to the tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the spinel ferrites. The formation of single spinel phase is confirmed by XRD analysis and the crystallite size is found in the range of 40-85nm. The electrical resistivity increases while the values of dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor decrease up to a substitution level of x = 0.02, y = 0.2 and then resistivity starts to decrease while the dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor increase above this concentration. The increase in resistivity while decrease in dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor suggest that the material with x = 0.02 and y = 0.2 can be used for applications in microwave devices because these devices require the materials with high resistivity and low eddy currents loss.