Fabrication and characterization of Ni1+X ZrXFe2-2XO4 nanoparticles for potential applications in high frequency devices

A series of ferrite nanostructures Ni1+xZrxFe2-2xO4 (0.00 <= x <= 0.15) were prepared via wet chemical route (chemical co-precipitation route). In this study, the iron (Fe3+) metal ions were substituted with zirconium (Zr4+) and nickel (Ni2+) metal ions. Zirconium is a good dielectric metal; however, the main purpose of nickel was to maintain the magnetic parameters of NiFe2O4 that could be reduced by replacement of iron ions with zirconium ions. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and impedance analyzer. XRD data confirmed the single phase cubic structure of all compositions of Ni1+xZrxFe2-2xO4 nanoparticles. The crystallite size calculated from XRD data using Scherrer's formula was found in the range 35-84 nm. SEM analysis provided the morphological details of the grains, grain size and level of aggregation of grains. The average grain size estimated from typical SEM image was 45-95 nm. Magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization (Ms), retentivity (Mr) and coercivity (Hc) were studied by M-H loops. All the M-H loops were recorded by varying the applied magnetic field in the range -10 kOe to 10 kOe at room temperature. Coercivity and saturation magnetization values became considerably large with the zirconium doping in nickel ferrites. Dielectric properties were studied in the alternating current frequency range of 1 x 10(6) Hz to 3 x 10(9) Hz. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss varied inversely with the applied alternating current frequency. Both magnetic and dielectric studies of Ni1+xZrxFe2-2xO4 nanoparticles exhibited the potential applications of these nanoparticles in high frequency devices fabrication. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.