Impact of Pr–Ni substitution on the electrical and magnetic properties of chemically derived nanosized strontium–barium hexaferrites

This work is part of our comprehensive study on the synthesis and characterization of Sr0.5Ba0.5−xPrxFe12−yNiyO19 (0.00 ≤ x ≥ 0.10, 0.00 ≤ y ≥ 1.00) hexaferrite nanomaterials and, to the best of our knowledge, is the first of its kind in this area of research. The results of the study reveal that this material may have potential applications in the area of magnetic and high-frequency devices, particularly those requiring high electrical resistivity to reduce eddy current losses. Solid state studies using X-ray diffraction show characteristic peaks of the magnetoplumbite structure for these compounds. Electrical and magnetic properties of the co-precipitated ferrites were investigated using state-of-the-art techniques. Values of saturation magnetization and remanence are found to increase in the ranges of 66–78 and 43–48 emu/g, respectively, whereas coercivity is inversely related to Pr–Ni content. AC-magnetic susceptibility investigations show a sharp ferri- to paramagnetic transition in the temperature range of 500–672 K. DC-electrical resistivity shows a maxima for the nominal composition: Sr0.5Ba0.44Pr0.06Fe11.4Ni0.6O19. The electrical properties of the synthesized materials are discussed in terms of charge-transport via electron-hopping mechanism between Fe3+/Fe2+ ions at the octahedral site.