Structural, Morphological, and Magnetic Characterization of Sol-Gel Synthesized MnCuZn Ferrites

Manganese copper ferrites belong to a family of ferrites with specific importance due to their high permeability values and low losses at low frequencies. In this paper, a series of ferrite samples has been synthesized using a novel and low cost sol-gel autocombustion route in order to systematically investigate the structural, compositional, morphological, and magnetic properties when zinc is substituted by copper in the series. X-ray diffraction reveals that all the samples have characteristic cubic spinel structure. The effect of zinc substitution at the copper site on the chemical bonding of the ferrite samples was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis was performed to determine the homogeneity and stoichiometric composition of elements present in the samples. Nanosized, uniformly shaped grains were evident from the images obtained using a scanning electron microscopy, which indirectly confirms the significance of the autocombustion synthesis technique employed in this paper. Magnetic properties determined using a vibrating sample magnetometer exhibited that zinc substitution could enhance the saturation magnetization of the samples, attributed to the substitution of a paramagnetic element (zinc) by a diamagnetic one (copper).