Ce-Substituted Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4: Structural, Morphological, Electrical, and Dielectric Properties

Functional nano ceramics, especially rare earth substituted ferrites, have numerous applications in microelectronics. They have certain novel characteristics associated with various rare earth substitutions associated with electronics. A series of cerium-substituted cobalt nickel ferrite nanoparticles with nominal composition CexCo0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 (where x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20) was prepared in powder form by chemical co-precipitation and sol-gel auto combustion methods. Samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), dielectric properties, and DC electrical resistivity. XRD analysis of all the samples confirms the formation of the spinel structure of Fd-3m space group. Crystallite size t was found to decrease, whereas both x-ray density D-x and lattice constant a were found to increase by increasing Ce concentration from 8.35 angstrom to 8.36 angstrom and 8.37 angstrom for sol-gel and co-precipitation, respectively. SEM results show the presence of uniformly distributed and almost spherical-shaped particles for both techniques. FUR measurements were used to further confirm the composition, i.e., cation substitution. The DC electrical resistivity of the x = 0.00 sample is higher than Ce-substituted ferrite samples and in the range of 10(8) Omega-cm at 373 K. Dielectric spectroscopy is also studied from 100 Hz to 5 MHz as a function of frequency. To our knowledge, this is the first reported research of this particular composition.