Study of the magnetic properties of Zn doped Cobalt ferrite (CoZnxFe2-xO4)

Zinc substitution is proposed as an efficient way to improve the performance of the ferrite. In this work, Zinc doped cobalt ferrite with the generic formula CoZnxFe2-xO4, with x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.4 were prepared by conventional ceramic technique, sintered at 1000 degrees C for 4 hours in air. The effect of zinc concentration on the initial permeability, Curie temperature, saturation magnetization, magnetic moment, coercivity and magnetic susceptibility was investigated. Contrary to most of the work in this subject, here Co is maintained fixed and Fe is progressively varied along with Zn. Curie temperature is found to increase initially up to 459 degrees C for Zn content of x = 0.1 and then decreased to 148 degrees C for further increase of Zn content (x = 0.4). Effect of Zn on the frequency dependent initial permeability, loss factor and relative quality factor was studied. The maximum value of saturation magnetization (51.37emu/gm) was found for the sample x = 0.1 and then decreases with the increase of Zn content. Morphological and magnetic properties of the samples were studied using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) respectively. The Zn-doped cobalt-ferrite (x = 0.1) having a high strain derivative could be a potential material for stress sensor application.