Morphology, structural, dielectric and magnetic study of Ce3+ ion doped Mg0.5Zn0.5Fe2-xCexO4 (0.0≤x≤0.1) ferrite nanoparticles

The current work involves the co-precipitation process to synthesize Ce3+ ion doped MZP ferrite nanoparticles. The single-phase spinel structure of all the samples is confirmed by XRD. As per the Debye-Scherrer formula, the nanoparticles crystallite size is in the range of 7-12 nm. The emergence of 450 cm(-1) and 560 cm(-1) distinctive vibrational bands corresponds to the octahedral and tetrahedral sites respectively, confirming the establishment of spinel structure using FTIR spectroscopy. The dielectric value of the sample decreases with Ce3+ ion doping till MZCE5 further increase shows increase in dielectric value. The presence of spherical grains, which agglomerate and have a porous morphology revealed by FE-SEM and TEM micrographs with particle size ranging 10(-12) nm. The EPR investigation of doping reveals an increase in the g-value. The spin concentration increases from 0.88 x 10(23) to 1.023 x 10(21) spins/g with increasing Ce3+ ion doping accompanied with decrease in relaxation time (7.108 x 10(21) to 4.556 x 10(21) sec(-1)). The lower coercivity, remanence and squareness value upon VSM investigation at RT reveals the superparamagnetic nature of the synthesized MZFC ferrite samples. The nanoparticle shows the potential application for high frequency devices, targeted drug delivery, hyperthermia treatment and ferrofluid.