Effect of Different Synthesis Methods on Structural, Morphological and Magnetic Properties of La0.7Ba0.25Nd0.05MnO3

Abstract

La0.7Ba0.25Nd0.05MnO3 (LBNMO) compounds were synthesized using two different methods, namely are solid-state reaction (SS) and sol-gel (SG). All samples were heat-treated at 1200 °C for 12 hours. The investigation on structural, morphological, and magnetic properties was carried out by X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Vibrating Samples Magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. From the Rietveld refinement, both samples have formed a rhombohedral structure with an R-3c (167) space group. The average crystallite size was calculated using the Scherrer formula and Williamson-Hall (W-H) method for comparison. It was shown that the crystallite size of the sample produced by the SG method has larger than the SS method. This result is fairly consistent with the result obtained from SEM analysis, which shows that the average grain for the SG sample is larger than of the grain of the SS samples. From the magnetic hysteresis curve, the magnetization saturation value for the SG was higher and sharper than that of the SS sample. These confirm the occurrence of the double exchange interaction in the samples, which is mainly associated with the reduction of bandwidth and grain size.