Article Impact of gadolinium doping into the frustrated antiferromagnetic lithium manganese oxide spinel

Cubic spinel LiMn2O4 (LMO) are promising electrode materials for advanced technological devices owing to their rich electrochemical properties. Here, a series of Gd3+-doped LiMn2O4 were synthesized using a simple one-step solgel synthesis, and a systematized study on the effect of increasing Gd3+ concentration on magnetic properties is conferred. The Raman and density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the synthesized materials were correlated with the magnetic properties; we observed a high coercivity value for the doped LMO compared to pristine LMO, which scales down from 0.57T to 0.14T with an increase in Gd concentration. The samples exhibited paramagnetic (at 300K) to antiferromagnetic (at 5K) transition and variation in the magnetic moment due to the replacement of Mn+2 or Mn+3 ion by Gd+3 ion from the octahedral 16d lattice site. The observed phase transitions in the hysteresis curve below the Neel temperature (T-N) at 5K are found to be due to the superexchange mechanism.

Automated summary

A series of Gd3+-doped LiMn2O4 materials were synthesized using a simple one-step solgel synthesis, and the effect of increasing Gd3+ concentration on magnetic properties was systematically studied. The synthesized materials were characterized by Raman and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, and a high coercivity value for the doped LMO compared to pristine LMO was observed, which decreased from 0.57T to 0.14T with an increase in Gd concentration. The samples exhibited a transition from paramagnetic (at 300K) to antiferromagnetic (at 5K) behavior, and the magnetic moment varied due to the replacement of Mn+2 or Mn+3 ions by Gd+3 ions from the octahedral 16d lattice site. The observed phase transitions in the hysteresis curve below the Neel temperature (T-N) at 5K were found to be due to the superexchange mechanism.