Structural and magnetic properties of Sb3+ ions doped Ni-Ba-Co ferrite prepared by sol-gel method

Abstract In the present work, nanocrystalline Sb3+ ions doped Ni0.2Ba0.1Co0.7Fe2−xSbxO4 (0 ≦ x ≦ 0.1, step by 0.025) ferrites were prepared via sol-gel method. The spinel-phase structure of samples can be confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The composition and structure were further studied by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). There were two typical characteristic bands ν1 and ν2 related to the stretching vibrations in spinel ferrite in FTIR spectra. Energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) analyzed the elements of samples. It indicated that the elements of Ni, Ba, Co, Fe, O and Sb existed in the samples. Vibrating sample magnetometer was used to characterize magnetic properties. The saturation magnetization decreased from 57.65 emu/g to 44.50 emu/g with the increasing Sb3+ ions content, which is attributed to Fe3+ ions replaced by the Sb3+ ions. Remanent magnetization and coercivity first decreased and then increased slightly.