Room Temperature Magnetic Behavior in Nanocrystalline Ni-Doped Zro2 by Microwave-Assisted Polyol Synthesis

Abstract

This article, deals with a microwave-assisted polyol method to demonstrate a low temperature route < 250°C, to prepare a high temperature cubic zirconia phase. Powder XRD pattern shows broad diffraction peaks suggesting nanometric size of the particles. Magnetic behavior of 1-5 at% Ni doped samples show a threshold for substitutional induced room temperature ferromagnetism up to 3 at% of Ni. TGA data reveals that Ni-doped ZrO2 polyol precursors decompose exothermically below 300°C. IR data confirms the reduction of Zr(OH)4 precipitates to ZrO2, in agreement with the conclusions drawn from the TGA analysis.