Magnetic, Electric, and Antimicrobial Properties of Chromium‐ Doped Cobalt Zinc Ferrite Nanoplates

Abstract

In the present work, Co0.5Zn0.5CrxFe2‐xO4 (CZFCO) (x=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5) has been successfully driven from self‐ignited sol‐gel method, using citric acid as a chelating agent. The powder XRD patterns are confirming the formation of single‐phase cubic crystallographic structure with satisfying the Fd‐3m space group. The Rietveld refinement process is carried out to obtain the structural information, including lattice parameters, cell volume, and bond length. Crystallite size and micro‐strain values are found by the Debye Scherrer formula as well as by HR‐TEM the particle size is shown at about 7.86 nm and the presence of two distinct lattice fringes. The SEM digital images display soft wart grains nature, where the majority of grains are forming a dense agglomerate nature with nano plate texture. EDS spectra reflect the presence of all the elements without impurities. The formations of spinel ferrite and metal‐oxygen bond were approbated by FT‐IR Spectra. Further, RT UV‐Vis spectra (DRS) show a decrease in the optical band gap from 1.56 eV to 1.46 eV. The magnetic properties indicate soft ferromagnetic behaviour and as increasing Cr dopant saturation magnetization and coercivity significantly decrease while in the case of X=0.5 suddenly enhanced the Ms, this well corroborates with cation distribution. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique has confirmed the presence of all elements and shows the valance of the Cr is +3 and +2 states at respected octahedral and tetrahedral sites. RT dielectric studies firmly agreed with the Maxwell‐Wagner type of polarization following Koop's theory. RT Impedance spectra suggest consent of the Debye type of relaxation and the Cole‐Cole map shows semi arc‐shaped curve fitted with Gaussian distribution. The imaginary and real parts of the relative permeability of frequency‐dependent curves decayed and firmly showed the favourable character of electric properties. Finally, all the antimicrobial activity results suggested the potential utility of derived compounds as antibacterial agents.