Characterization and magnetic properties of SrTi1−xNixO3 nanoparticles prepared by hydrothermal method

SrTi1−xNixO3 (x=0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) nanoparticles were prepared by the hydrothermal method. All as-prepared samples were annealed at 800 °C for 3 h in argon to study the annealing effect on their magnetic properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were used to study the crystalline structure, morphology, oxidation state and magnetic properties of samples. XRD results indicate a cubic perovskite structure of all samples with the impurity phase of SrCO3 in all as-prepared samples and Ni metal in annealed samples of x=0.10 and 0.15. SEM and TEM images confirmed a cubic shape for all samples with decreasing average particle sizes from 136.8±4.7 to 126.2±6.9 nm for annealed samples upon Ni doping. XANES results revealed the existence of Ni metal in sample of x=0.05 with the oxidation state of +2 for Ni ion in a SrTi0.95Ni0.05O3 sample. XPS results indicated the promotion of oxygen vacancies. VSM results revealed a paramagnetic behavior at room temperature of all as-prepared samples. Ni-doped samples exhibited ferromagnetic behavior after annealing in argon with the Curie temperature (TC) above 380 K for a sample with x=0.05 as shown by field cooling (FC) and zero-field cooling (ZFC) measurements. The room temperature ferromagnetism (RT-FM) of ferromagnetic samples was suggested to be originated from Ni metal and F-center exchange (FCE) mechanism due to the promotion of oxygen vacancies in the perovskite structure.