Synthesis, Structural and Magnetic Properties of Copper Substituted Nickel Ferrites by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

The Ni1–xCuxFe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0) ferrites have been prepared by sol-gel method in order to obtain homogeneous crystal structure and they are sintered at high temperature. The effect of copper doping on the structural and magnetic properties of nickel ferrites sintered at 1000°C has been examined. The X-ray diffraction measurements clearly showed the formation of single phase spinel ferrite structure in all the prepared ferrite compositions. Because of the high sintering temperature the particle size is observed beyond the nano-scale range in all the compositions. The lattice parameters are found to increase with increasing doping concentration of the copper content. Magnetization results exhibit a non-collinear ferrimagnetic structure for x = 0.0 to 0.5 and Neel’s collinear ferrimagnetic structure for x = 0.5 to 0.9 suggesting a change in magnetic ordering.