Structural development and magnetic phenomenon in Zn–Cr–Fe multi oxide nano-crystals

The Cr3+ ions doped multi-oxide ZnFe2−xCrxO4 ferrite nanoparticles have been synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method. Site occupancies of Zn2+, Cr3+ and Fe3+ ions were analyzed using X-ray diffraction data and Buergerʹs method. The effect of the constituent phase variation on the magnetic hysteresis behavior was examined by saturation magnetization which decreases with the increase in Cr3+ content in place of Fe3+ ions at octahedral B-site. Typical blocking temperature (TB) around 90 K was observed by zero field cooling and field cooling magnetization study. Room temperature Mössbauer spectra show two paramagnetic doublets (tetrahedral and octahedral sites). The isomer shifts of both doublets decrease whereas quadrupole splitting and relative area of tetrahedral A-site increases with increasing Cr3+ substitution. The dielectric constant (measured on compositions x=0, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.0) increases when the temperature increases as in the semiconductor. This behavior is attributed to the hopping of electrons between Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions with a thermal activation.