Structural and Magnetic Properties of Cr-Co Nanoferrite Particles

Nano-crystalline CrxCoFe2–xO4 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) ferrites were synthesized by sol-gel method. The X-ray diffraction patterns of all the samples provide information about the existence of single phase spinel structure. The SEM and TEM micrographs show the uniform particle distribution and SAED pattern represents the polycrystalline nature of the resultant ferrite nano-particles. High purity of the sample is confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The FTIR spectra show two strong absorption bands in the range of 600 - 400 cm–1, which confirm the presence of M-O stretching band in ferrites. The magnetic properties of the synthesized samples were investigated by using vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperature. According to VSM reports the main magnetic parameters like saturation magnetization (Ms), coercivity (Hc) were found to decrease with the substitution of Cr3+ content. Possible mechanisms which are responsible for the results are scrutinized minutely in this paper.