Investigation of microstructural and magnetic properties of Ca2+ doped strontium hexaferrite nanoparticles
Sachin Kumar Godara, Mankamal Preet Kaur, Varinder Kaur, Parambir Singh Malhi, Mandeep Singh, Swati Verma, Rohit Jasrotia, Jahangeer Ahmed, Mohaseen S. Tamboli, Ashwani Kumar Sood
Abstract
The effect of Ca2+ ions doping on the structure, magnetic properties, and surface morphology of Sr1-xCaxFe12O19 (x = 0.0 to 0.5 with step size 0.1) hexaferrite nanoparticles synthesized using the sol–gel auto-combustion technique was investigated in the current study. The phase purity of synthesized samples is confirmed by XRD data plots up to x = 0.2, after which α-Fe2O3 was observed as a secondary phase in all concentrations. The micrographs from FESEM show that with the increase in the concentration of Ca2+ dopant, the average grain size increases from ≈125 nm to ≈240 nm. The intensity of secondary phase Raman peaks increases with increasing dopant ion concentration beyond x = 0.2. The coercivity value varies between 5292 and 5828 Oe as the Ca2+ dopant increases. A maximum (72.63 emu/g) value of saturation magnetization (Ms) have been obtained in samples at x = 0.2. Such substances can be utilized for making permanent magnets applications.