Effect of Cu doping on the structural and magnetic properties of MnFe2O4 nanoparticles

In the present work, CuXMn1-XFe2O4 (X = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2) ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized using reverse co-precipitation and the effects of Cu2+ doping with different percentages on the structural and magnetic properties of manganese ferrite nanoparticles have been investigated. The microstructural evolutions, the magnetic properties, the bandgap, and the dielectric properties of Cu-doped nanoparticles were evaluated. These studies were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles was observed to be spherical and almost uniform. The bandgap of the samples decreased with increasing copper content due to the integration of the sub-bands with the conductive band as well as the additional energy levels of the sub-bands created by the high surface area and interfacial defects in the agglomerated nanoparticles. Moreover, both dielectric constant and dielectric loss increase at low frequencies and decrease at high frequencies.

Automated summary

In this study, CuXMn1-XFe2O4 (X = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, and 0.2) ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized using reverse co-precipitation method, and the effects of different percentages of Cu2+ doping on the structural and magnetic properties of manganese ferrite nanoparticles were investigated. The microstructural evolutions, magnetic properties, bandgap, and dielectric properties of Cu-doped nanoparticles were evaluated using various techniques. The synthesized nanoparticles exhibited spherical and uniform morphology. The bandgap decreased with increasing copper content due to the integration of sub-bands with the conductive band and the presence of additional energy levels created by surface area and interfacial defects in the agglomerated nanoparticles. Additionally, the dielectric constant and dielectric loss showed frequency-dependent behavior.