The role of praseodymium substituted ions on electrical and magnetic properties of Mg spinel ferrites

Spinel ferrites with composition MgPryFe2−yO4 (y=0.0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.10) were successfully synthesized using sol-gel auto-combustion technique. The structural prisoperties of a prepared sintered powder were characterized with the help of X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and then also by using Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrical measurements demonstrate that resistivity and activation energy increases with the Praseodymium substitution while dc resistivity decreases with the rise of temperature showing the semiconductor nature of the synthesized ferrites. Remanence and the saturation magnetization (Ms) decrease while coercivity (Hc) also increases with the increase in praseodymium contents. Anisotropic constant is observed to exhibit similar behavior as HC. The above mentioned parameters suggest that the synthesized samples are favorable for microwave absorbing purposes.