Impact of Mn-substitution on crystallographic, optical, and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Li-Ni-Zn ferrites fabricated by the sol-gel autocombustion technique

Abstract

The wet-chemical sol-gel autocombustion, which is a faster and inexpensive synthesis technique has been implemented to synthesize Mn-substituted Li–Ni–Zn ferrite nanoparticles with nominal compositions of Li0.15Ni0.30-xMnxZn0.40Fe2.15O4 ranging from x = 0.00 to 0.15 in the step of 0.03. Well-shaped specimens have been sintered at temperatures ranging from 1373 to 1523 K. The patterns of the XRD reveal the internal shape which ensured the growth of the spinel layout for all samples. The Debye-Scherrer formula has been carried out to estimate the as-developed powder's crystallite size which is in the range of 46–52 nm. Both the lattice constant and average grain diameter of the samples have been increased with Mn2+ ions. The topmost value of the real portion of initial permeability and relative quality factor have been observed for Li0.15Ni0.18Mn0.12Zn0.40Fe2.15O4 ferrite sintered at the temperature of 1523 K, which are 7% and 16% larger, respectively, compared to the pristine composition.