Effects of Al Doping with Zinc Ferrite Nanoparticles on Structural, Magnetic and Dielectric Properties

Abstract

Zinc ferrite nanoparticles have wide range of the applications in the field of Electronics, Optoelectronics, Magnetics, Solar cell, Photocatalysts. With Al doping we modify their structural, magnetic and electrical properties of zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4). In the present studies, zinc ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by sol gel method using glycine as combustion agent. The effects of Al doping concentration on the structural, morphological, optical, magnetic and electrical properties of zinc ferrites were studied. In x-ray diffraction patterns analysis confirmed the formation of the cubic spinel structure. We characterise scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) in the current work to examine the morphology of the nanomaterials. The UV-Vis optical investigation showed that Al+3 doping increased absorbance and significantly decreased energy band gap value (1.90 eV-2.01 eV). The magnetic properties of zinc ferrite NPs were studied by using vibrating samples magnetometer which showed samples of pure zinc ferrites and Al-doped zinc ferrite with paramgnetism. Dielectric properties were studied from impedance analyser. When aluminium concentration increases in the zinc ferrites, dielectric characteristic results were obtained in which dielectric constant (ɛ'), dielectric loss (ɛ'') and tangent loss decreased. Also when frequency increases above all three dielectric parameters remains stable at high frequency. The obtained results of pure and Al doped Zn ferrite are useful for high frequency applications.