Structural, morphological and dielectric studies of zirconium substituted CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this work, the influence of zirconium substitution in cubic spinel nanocrystalline CoFe₂O₄ on the structural, morphological and dielectric properties are reported. Zirconium substituted cobalt ferrite Co_1-xZr_xFe₂O₄ (x = 0.7) nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel route. The structural and morphological investigations using powder X-ray diffraction and high resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM) analysis are reported. Scherrer plot, Williamson–Hall analysis and Size-strain plot method were used to calculate the crystallite size and lattice strain of the samples. High purity chemical composition of the sample was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The atoms vibration modes of as synthesized nanoparticles were recorded using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer in the range of 4000–400 cm^-1. The temperature-dependent dielectric properties of zirconium substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were also carried out. Relative dielectric permittivity, loss tangent and AC conductivity were measured in the frequency range 50 Hz to 5 MHz at temperatures between 323 and 473 K. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss values of the sample decreased with increasing in the frequency of the applied signal.

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