Magnetic, dielectric and sensing properties of manganese substituted copper ferrite nanoparticles

• An auto-combustion method support to prepare less size of particles.
• The excellent magnetic properties obtained by as-burnt samples.
• Nature of the ferrites was affected with increasing annealing temperature.

Manganese substituted copper ferrite nanoparticles were synthesized by an auto-combustion technique using metal nitrates and urea for gas sensor application. The products were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM and VSM techniques. The effect of annealing temperature on the particle size, magnetic and dielectric properties of Mn–Cu ferrite nanoparticles was analyzed. The size of the particles are in the range of ~9–45 nm. The effect of annealing on the magnetic properties is discussed with the help of variation in saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercivity (Hc) by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The dielectric loss and dielectric constant have been measured in the frequency range of 100 kHz–5 MHz. Furthermore, Conductance response of Mn–Cu ferrite nanomaterial was measured by exposing the material to reducing gas like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).