Tailoring of structural and magnetic properties by substitution of copper in cobalt chromium ferrites

The simple and cost-effective powder metallurgy method has been employed to prepare a series of copper substituted cobalt chromium ferrites CuxCo1-xCr0.5Fe2O4 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0). The calcination of the samples has been carried out at 1100 °C for 24 h. X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurement proves the formation of cubic spinel ferrites. Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM)) analysis revealed that the substitution of copper in the Co-Cr ferrites leads to reduce the magnetic moment that in turns decrease the saturation magnetization and coercivity. The Ultra violet visible spectroscopy (UV-VIS) showed that the band gap energy increases with copper substitution which is due to reduction in crystallite size. The results indicate that the replacement of copper with the cobalt-chromium ferries strongly influences the crystal structure, microstructure, magnetic parameters and band gap energy.