Abstract
•Pure and doped maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles were successfully prepared by sol–gel route.•Doping maghemite nanoparticles by Mg, Gd, and Co enhance the magnetization.•Doping maghemite nanoparticles by Co enhance the magnetic coercivity.•The remanence and coercivity increase to ∼70 emu/g and ∼200 kOe at 5 K for the Co-doped maghemite at 5 %.•The Magnetic saturation had a high value (78.41 emu/g at 300 K) with Mg doping at 5 %
The γ-Fe2O3 magnetic nanoparticles, prepared by sol gel route, were doped with Magnesium (Mg), Gadolinium (Gd), and Cobalt (Co) oxides to enhance their magnetic properties. The X-ray diffraction, of the prepared samples, show that all samples crystallized under cubic structure with P4332 space group. The morphological properties of our nanopowders were studied with TEM investigations. The average nanoparticle sizes were distributed between 15 and 23 nm for both the pure and the doped samples. The magnetization as a function of temperature and magnetic field were measured to study the effect of the doping elements on the magnetic properties. The results show that the highest magnetization (MH) of our nanoparticles increases especially with increasing Mg, Gd and Co concentration It is also observed that cobalt doping increases the magnetic coercivity by increasing the value of the coercivity field (Hc) and remanence magnetisation (Mr), which can be used in magnetic recording devices.