Effect of Y3+, Sm3+ and Dy3+ ions on the microstructure, morphology, optical and magnetic properties NiCoZn magnetic nanoparticles

Nano-sized magnetic particles of Yttrium, Samarium, and Dysprosium doped Nickel Cobalt Zinc were successfully synthesized by the sol-gel auto-combustion technique in order to investigate different structural, morphological, elemental, optical and magnetic properties with the usage of different characterization techniques. The characterization techniques used for studying different properties of synthesized samples were XRD, FESEM, EDS, FTIR, and VSM. The XRD patterns revealed the formation of single-phase inverse spinel cubic structure with an average crystallite size (D) in the range of 59–63 nm. The surface morphology of the synthesized samples carried out by FESEM surely indicates the formation of dense, cubic in shape and agglomerated magnetic nanoparticles. The EDS spectra of prepared samples show the formation of pure magnetic nanoparticles. The Fourier infrared transform spectroscopy supports our XRD results to a great extent that the synthesized magnetic nanoparticles have single-phase inverse spinel cubic structure by giving the spectrum in the range of 419–594 cm−1. The magnetic measurements were carried out by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer for calculating different magnetic parameters such as saturation magnetization (Ms), coercivity (Hc), remanent magnetization (Hc) and magnetic moment (nB) which was found to be in the range of 54–63 emu/g, 34–209 Oe, 1.99–19.89 emu/g and 2.29–2.66. The magnetic analysis of synthesized samples has been explained on the basis of the theory of exchange interactions and Neel's sublattice model. Keywords: NiCoZn magnetic nanoparticles, Structural study, FESEM, FTIR spectra, Magnetic measurements