Effect of copper on the electromagnetic properties of Mg–Zn–Cu ferrites prepared by sol–gel auto-combustion method

A novel gel auto-combustion method was used to synthesize Mg–Zn–Cu ferrite powders with compositions of (Mg0.5−xCuxZn0.5)O(Fe2O3)0.98 (where x=0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35, 0.40). X-ray diffraction results showed that the dried gels, synthesized from metal nitrites and citric acid, transformed directly into nano-sized ferrite particles after an auto-combustion process in air. The synthesized powders exhibited high-sintering activity, and can be sintered at temperature less than 950 °C. The low-temperature sintered Mg–Zn–Cu ferrites prepared possess good electromagnetic properties, as well as fine-grained microstructures, making them become good materials for multilayer chip inductors with high-performance and low-cost. Copper content has significant influence on the electromagnetic properties, such as initial permeability, quality factor, DC resistivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent as well as their frequency dispersion for Mg–Zn–Cu ferrites. The possible reasons that are responsible for the composition dependence of main electromagnetic properties were discussed.