Effect of zinc, magnesium, and copper substitutions on the initial permeability of nickel ferrite

Abstract

Zinc, magnesium, and copper substituted nickel spinel ferrite were synthesized in the form of Ni1 − x (Zn06Mg0.2Cu0.2) x Fe2O4 (where x = 0.0, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7) via auto combustion method. The effect of the presence of these dopants on the average of crystallite, average particle size, the lattice constant, morphology, initial permeability, and magnetization of the synthesized ferrites was investigated. The structural properties, morphology, and magnetic properties were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), LCR meter and alternative gradient force magnetometer (AGFM). XRD study shows the formation of a single-phase cubic spinel structure. Also, the average crystallite size was found to increase from 6 nm to 11 nm with increasing the Zn2+, Mg2+, and Cu2+ doping ratio from 0.0 to 0.7. Moreover, FE-SEM results were indicated the presence of nanosized spherical shape of prepared particles with agglomeration. The lattice constant and the particle size were found to increase with the increase in Zinc, magnesium, and copper. The values of initial permeability and magnetization were increased to a maximum value of 76 H/M and 71.37 emu/g for x = 0.7 sample. Furthermore, coercivity was found to decrease with increasing Zinc, magnesium, and copper concentration, which is useful for power applications. The variations of initial permeability and magnetization as a function of average particle size were discussed and were compared with previous works. The results were indicated the increase in initial permeability and magnetization with the enhancement of average particle size. The constancy in permeability throughout the frequency range studied from 10 kHz to1 MHz was indicated the compositional stability and quality of the samples. The results were indicated that the ferrites with high initial permeability can be an excellent choice as magnetic cores.