Structural, vibrational, electrical, and magnetic properties of mixed spinel ferrites Mg1-xZnxFe2O4 nanoparticles prepared by co-precipitation

Mg1-xZnxFe2O4 (where x = 0.0, 02, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8) nanoparticles were synthesized using co-precipitation. A detailed investigation of the structural, electrical, magnetic and optical properties was carried out for the synthesized samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD), current-voltage (I-V) measurements, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. Rietveld refinement fitting revealed that the structure of these samples is cubic spinel with space group Fd3m, and the lattice parameter decreases linearly with increasing Mg-content due to the smaller ionic radius of the Mg2+ ion. Five Raman modes were predicted for the spinel structure, and the A1g Raman mode split into three branches, where each one belong to each ions like Zn2+, Mg2+, and Fe3+ in the tetrahedral positions. The magnetization showed an increasing fashion with the increasing Mg concentration due to the cation rearrangement at the tetrahedral and octahedral sites. The isothermal magnetization curves collected at room temperature showed a paramagnetic (PM) to ferrimagnetic (FiM) transition as the Mg content was increased in Mg1-xZnxFe2O4. Both magnetic and structural properties of ZnMg-ferrite nanoparticles strongly depend upon the Mg2+ cation doping percentage. Current-voltage (I-V) measurements show that electrical resistivity increases with increasing Mg content.