Manganese doped cobalt–nickel spinel ferrite via. sol–gel approach: Insight into structural, morphological, magnetic, and dielectric properties

The structural, morphological, magnetic, and dielectric properties of MnxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4 (x = 0.0, 0.2, and 0.4) synthesized by sol–gel auto-combustion are reported in this paper. X-ray diffraction pattern of the samples confirms the formation of a single-phase spinel ferrite and the crystallite size (D) is in the range of 32.60–33.62 nm. Fourier transform infrared spectra have a vibrational band at 534.20 cm−1 and 420.13 cm−1 which corresponds to the tetrahedral and octahedral sites of the MnxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4 respectively. Field emission scanning electron microscope reveals the cubic morphology of the synthesized spinel ferrite with inhomogeneous grain size. Vibrating sample magnetometer analysis showed the ferromagnetic nature of all samples. All the samples exhibit a multi-domain because the value of Mr/Ms lies in the range of 0.153–0.336. Dielectric properties reveal the hopping of the charge carrier which has improved the conduction mechanism of the MnxCo0.5-xNi0.5Fe2O4.