Cu2+substituted Mg-Co ferrite has improved dc electrical resistivity and magnetic properties

By using a solid-state reaction method, Cu2+ substituted Mg0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 0.25) ferrite materials structural, magnetic, and electrical properties of the synthesized materials have been studied with the help of XRD, SEM, FTIR, VSM, and DC electrical resistivity apparatus respectively. The XRD patterns of the ferrite show a cubic single phase. The lattice constant, calculated using the XRD data, was found in the range 8.386-8.362 angstrom. The obtained values of the lattice constant decrease with increasing copper concentration. The average crystallite sizes were found to be in the range of between 41.15 and 31.52 nm. The SEM images show spherical and polyhedral-shaped grains with a size range of 1-1.5 mu m and some agglomerations. The two ab-sorption bands around 561.58 - 579.63 cm-1 and 397.58-406.03 cm-1 indicate the nature of ferrite. The samples were with soft ferromagnetic behavior found in the VSM study. The increase in concentration changes the hard-to-soft magnetic i.e. ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic transition. The temperature dependency of DC resistivity is increased with Cu2+ concentration showing semiconducting nature.