Role of interfacial disorder on room temperature ferromagnetism and giant dielectric constant in nano-sized Co1.5Fe1.5O4 ferrite grains

•Nano-sized grains of Co1.5Fe1.5O4 ferrite have been prepared.•Structural, magnetic and dielectric properties have been studied.•Material exhibited ferromagnetism and giant permittivity.•Effect of interfacial heterogeneity has been demonstrated.

Co1.5Fe1.5O4 ferrite with nano-sized grains has been prepared by chemical reaction of metal nitrates at different pH values. XRD pattern has shown cubic spinel structure. The samples prepared at pH ∼11–12 showed ferromagnetism at room temperature, whereas the sample prepared at pH ∼9.5 has shown superparamagnetic feature. Samples have shown large electrical conductivity (10−2–10−4 S/cm), giant dielectric constant (104–107), and low dielectric loss (0.4–9). Magnetic and dielectric properties are strongly affected by the interfacial structure of nano-sized grains. To crosscheck the interfacial effects, magnetic properties of Co1.5Fe1.5O4 ferrite have been compared to that of a nano-composite, consisting of Co1.5Fe1.5O4 and non-magnetic NaNO3 particles. Cole–Cole plots of the complex dielectric spectra showed better insights of the interfacial effect in the samples.

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