Zn/Ba nanoparticles doping effect on surface interface, Morphology, and dielectric elucidation of spinel ferrites

Spinel ferrites having a composition of Ca_0.5Ba_0.5-xZn_xFe₂O₄, (x = 0, 0.125, 0.25, 0.350 and 0.5) was synthesized by sol-gel autocombustion. The acquired samples underwent a 6 h annealing process at 650 °C. The FTIR and XRD results verified the spinel structure. XRD data have validated the single-phase BCC structure. All samples' average crystal diameters fall between 41.43 and 94.05 nm, and the lattice constant "a" value dropped from 8.60 Å to 8.54 Å. Other parameters such as atomic packing fraction, bulk density D-spacing, dislocation density, number of unit cells, porosity, strain, unit cell volume, volume of particles, and X-ray density were also calculated. reveals vibrational frequencies assigned to the distinct functional groups, octahedral and tetrahedral sites. The validation to form the spinel behavior of prepared samples is provided by FTIR bands observed in the 400–600 cm⁻¹ regime. The SEM was used to analyze the morphology of the produced nanocrystals. By changing the Ba and Zn concentration, a growth in grain size was observed. Dielectric characterization has revealed a variety of responses at different frequencies. Dielectric constant, dielectric loss, tangent loss, Q-value, electric modulus, and A.C conductivity were explored. Small values of dielectric loss demonstrated that the reported material can be recommended for its use in transformer cores and high-frequency devices.