Rietveld refinement, morphological and magnetic properties of rare earth doped Co-Zn nanoferrites

Magnetic nanoparticles have been extensively studied in the recent past due to their long range of applications in electronics industries and biomedical fields. In the present work nano-particles of Co0.9Zn0.2DyxFe1.9-xO4 were synthesized by using sol–gel auto-combustion method. The structural, morphological and magnetic properties have been investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. Rietveld refined XRD patterns reveal the single-phase cubic spinel structure of the samples with Fd3m space group. Introduction of Dy3+ ions in Co-Zn matrix increases the lattice lengths from 8.3641 to 8.3719 Å. Crystallite size obtained from Scherer equation varies from 15.2 to 17.3 nm. Surface morphology of the samples has been studied by using SEM images and elemental analysis was done by using EDAX spectra. The nanocrystalline nature of the samples was confirmed by using TEM images. Magnetic hysteresis loops clearly indicate the ferromagnetic nature of the samples. Introduction of higher magnetic Dy3+ ions increase the saturation magnetization from 62.53 to 91.03 emu/gm while as reduces the coercivity from 819 to 589 Oe.