In the present work,
Mg1–x
Zn
x
Fe2O4 (MZFO) nanoparticles
with x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.35, and 0.5 were synthesized
via a chemical coprecipitation method. The study aimed to explore
the effect of substituting Mg with Zn in MZFO on its structural, dielectric,
and gas-sensing properties. The spinel phase formation was confirmed
using X-ray diffraction, and the morphology of the prepared nanoparticles
was revealed using scanning electron microscopy. Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis confirmed the band ranges of
500–600 cm–1 for tetrahedral and 390–450
cm–1 for octahedral lattice sites. The dielectric
data showed that Zn substitution in MZFO decreased both the dielectric
constant and loss with increasing frequencies and attained a stagnant
value at higher frequencies. Furthermore, the gas-sensing characteristics
of Zn-substituted spinel ferrites at room temperature for CO2, O2, and N2 were studied. The nanostructured
MZFO exhibited high sensitivity in the order of CO2 >
O2 ≫ N2 and showed a good response time
of
(∼1 min) for CO2, demonstrating that MZFO can be
a good potential candidate for gas-sensing applications.