Structural, morphological and dielectric studies of zirconium substituted CoFe2O4 nanoparticles

In this work, the influence of zirconium substitution in cubic spinel nanocrystalline CoFe2O4 on the structural, morphological and dielectric properties are reported. Zirconium substituted cobalt ferrite Co1-xZrxFe2O4 (x = 0.7) nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel route. The structural and morphological investigations using powder X-ray diffraction and high resolution scanning electron microscope (HRSEM) analysis are reported. Scherrer plot, Williamson-Hall analysis and Size-strain plot method were used to calculate the crystallite size and lattice strain of the samples. High purity chemical composition of the sample was confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The atoms vibration modes of as synthesized nanoparticles were recorded using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer in the range of 4000-400 cm-1. The temperature-dependent dielectric properties of zirconium substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were also carried out. Relative dielectric permittivity, loss tangent and AC conductivity were measured in the frequency range 50 Hz to 5 MHz at temperatures between 323 K and 473 K. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss values of the sample decreased with increasing in the frequency of the applied signal.