Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2020) 135: 41
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00112-5

Regular Article

Correlations between microstructural and magnetic properties of Gd³⁺-doped spinel ferrite nanoparticles

Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, Bihar, 800005, India

^* e-mail: samrat.udc@gmail.com

Received: 11 September 2019
Accepted: 3 January 2020
Published online: 10 January 2020

Abstract

We report the effect of rare-earth Gd³⁺ doping in Ni–Zn ferrite nanoparticles with a generic formula Zn_0.2Ni_0.8Gd _x Fe_2–x O₄ (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15), synthesized using chemical co-precipitation technique. The cubic spinel phase formation and phase purity were confirmed using X-ray diffraction with crystallite size in the range of 16 ± 7 nm obtained from Scherrer’s formula and Williamson–Hall (W–H) plots analysis. The lowering of octahedral cubic symmetry was also observed from Raman spectra with increasing Gd³⁺ ions content. Increase in Gd³⁺ ions concentration results in enhancement of A–O–B superexchange magnetic interaction, confirmed by hysteresis curves at 5 K. The room temperature M–H plots showed superparamagnetic behavior due to small particle size. The blocking temperature was found to decrease with increase in Gd³⁺ ions concentration in Ni–Zn ferrite nanoparticles, which makes it a potential candidate for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and hyperthermia.