Abstract
[Display omitted]
•Magnesium based spinel ferrites were successfully synthesized by sol-gel method.•Dielectric constant shows the normal spinel ferrites behavior.•The dc conductivity are found to decrease with increasing temperature.•The samples with low conductivity have high values of activation energy.•The Impedance decreases with increasing frequency of applied field.
Spinel ferrites with nominal composition MgPryFe2−yO4 (y=0.00, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.10) were prepared by sol-gel method. Temperature dependent DC electrical conductivity and drift mobility were found in good agreement with each other, reflecting semiconducting behavior. The dielectric properties of all the samples as a function of frequency (1MHz–3GHz) were measured at room temperature. The dielectric constant and complex dielectric constant of these samples decreased with the increase of praseodymium concentration. In the present spinel ferrite, Cole–Cole plots were used to separate the grain and grain boundary’s effects. The substitution of praseodymium ions in Mg-based spinel ferrites leads to a remarkable rise of grain boundary’s resistance as compared to the grain’s resistance. As both AC conductivity and Cole–Cole plots are the functions of concentration, they reveal the dominant contribution of grain boundaries in the conduction mechanism. AC activation energy was lower than dc activation energy. Temperature dependence normalized AC susceptibility of spinel ferrites reveals that MgFe2O4 exhibits multi domain (MD) structure with high Curie temperature while on substitution of praseodymium, MD to SD transitions occurs. The low values of conductivity and low dielectric loss make these materials best candidate for high frequency application.