DC electrical properties of Zn-Ni ferrites

DC electrical resistivity was studied for ZnxNi1-xFe2O4 samples (with x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1) prepared using the usual ceramic technique as function of temperature T and composition x. The DC electrical resistivity p, Curie temperature T-c and activation energies for electric conduction in ferrimagnetic (E-f) and in paramagnetic (F-p) region decrease as zinc ion substitution increases. The ferrite samples studied have a semiconductor behavior where electrical resistivity p decreases on increasing the temperature. The activation energy for the electric conduction in the paramagnetic region was found to be higher than that in the ferrimagnetic region. The resistivity p increases as porosity increases. A new empirical formula was suggested for composition dependence of electrical resistivity.