A correlated structural and electrical study of manganese ferrite nanoparticles with variation in sintering temperature

Abstract

Manganese ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by chemical co-precipitation method. Metal chlorides and sodium hydroxide were used as precursor. The spinel phase formation of the prepared samples was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). From the XRD data, the average crystallite size and lattice constant were calculated. FTIR spectra reveal the characteristic absorption bands of spinel ferrite due to M-O stretching vibrations in tetrahedral and octahedral sites. Manganese ferrite nanoparticles were further given sintering. The effect of sintering at different temperatures on the structural properties such as XRD, FTIR and electrical properties such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss and ac-conductivity was studied. Possible mechanism of structural changes and observed electrical behavior due to sintering is being discussed. A strong correlation has also been observed in the results obtained from different characterization techniques.