Impact of Reentrant Ferroelectric-tetragonal Phase on the Structure, Spectral, Electric, Magnetic and Magnetoelectric Properties of Gd3+-Fe3+ Co-substituted BaTiO3 Ceramics

The tetragonal reentrant phase conversion (P4mm) is obtained from the phase coexistence of the tetragonal and the non-polar hexagonal phases (P63/mmc) as a structural effect due to Gd substitution in Ba1-yGdyTi1-xFexO3(x=0.05; y=0.005, 0.01 and 0.015) ceramics. The diffraction spots in the SAED patterns and the d-spacing of the HREM lattice fringes mainly evidence the coexistence of the structural phase. Rietveld refinement offers the bond length and the other structural data. Ti presents itself as Ti3+ and Ti4+ whereas Fe presents as Fe2+ and Fe3+, revealed by the XPS spectra. The octahedra partly change to pentahedral due to the creation of the charge compensating the oxygen vacancies and therefore the conversion from tetragonal to hexagonal phase occurs. The EPR feature corresponding to Ti3+ decreases progressively as the Gd content increases, which implies a decrease of the oxygen vacancy concentration. This facilitates reentrant tetragonal phase conversion. The observed ferromagnetic nature originated from the Fe3+-O2--Fe3+ super-exchange and Gd3+-O2--Gd3+ interactions. The artificial single tetragonal phase magnetoelectric Ba0.985Gd0.015Ti0.95Fe0.05O3 material has the excellent magnetoelectric coupling coefficient of 3.74mV/cm.Oe.

Magnetic Solid-Phase Extraction of Cadmium Ions by Hybrid Self-Assembled Multicore Type Nanobeads

Novel hybrid inorganic CoFe2O4/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) polymeric framework nanobeads-type adsorbents with tailored magnetic properties were synthesized by a combination of coprecipitation and flash-cooling technology. Precise self-assembly engineering of their shape and composition combined with deep testing for cadmium removal from wastewater are investigated. The development of a single nanoscale object with controllable composition and spatial arrangement of CoFe2O4 (CF) nanoparticles in carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as polymeric matrix, is giving new boosts to treatments of wastewaters containing heavy metals. The magnetic nanobeads were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and vibrational sample magnetometer (VSM). The magnetic properties of CF@CMC sample clearly exhibit ferromagnetic nature. Value of 40.6 emu/g of saturation magnetization would be exploited for magnetic separation from aqueous solution. In the adsorptions experiments the assessment of equilibrium and kinetic parameters were carried out by varying adsorbent dosage, contact time and cadmium ion concentration. The kinetic behavior of adsorption process was best described by pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir isotherm was fitted best with maximum capacity uptake of 44.05 mg/g.

Role of Cationic and Anionic Dopants on the Structural, Morphological, Optical and Magnetic Properties of Lead Oxide Nanocrystals Prepared by Solvothermal Method

A facile and simple microwave assisted solvothermal technique was adopted for the synthesis of undoped and doped (Mn2+, S2–) lead oxide nanoparticles. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis were carried out to realize the thermal behaviour of PbO nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were annealed at about 400 ºC. The calcined samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, SEM, EDX, UV spectroscopic analysis and VSM measurement. The diffraction patterns of the prepared nanoparticles showed the formation of an orthorhombic phase of lead oxide. All the samples were in nano- regime with an average grain size of 22-26 nm. Spherical morphology of the samples was revealed in the SEM micrographs. EDX pattern confirmed the presence of cationic and anionic dopants. The band gap energy values range from 4.2 to 5.6 eV. The VSM measurement revealed that the sample has weak ferromagnetic nature.

Synthesis and Characterization of Co2+ Ions Doped ZnS-CdS Composite Nanopowder

ZnS-CdS composite nano-powder doped with (0.01 mol %) Cobalt has been collected by a co-precipitation process at 300 K. The sample is characterized by structural, combined spectroscopic methods and magnetic studies. The prepared samples were belonging to cubic structure no impurity phases were observed. Doping of cobalt increase the neighborhood strain assessment and a decreases lattice constants decides from x-ray diffraction data. The crystallite size is 10.42nm. From UV-absorption and EPR studies revealed that the energy band gap of Co2+ doped ZnS-CdS composite nanopowder and extension of sp-d exchange interactions and common d-d transitions. The variation in the energy bandgap varies as a function of cobalt concentration is due to structural modification. Photoluminescence spectrum reveals the defect-related emissions and shows the formation of luminescence. FT-IR spectrum confirmed the feature vibrational manner of Zn, Cd, O–H and sulfide ions are in the host lattice. The doping-induced magnetic properties are studied by vibrating sample magnetometer which matches with the theoretical values besides ferromagnetic nature. Magnetic studies confirm the ferromagnetic nature of the material. Surface morphology and chemical homogeneity studies were carried out by using SEM with EDAX. Transmission electron microscope recommends the crystalline nature of nanoparticles, with average particle size is of the order of 20-100nm.

Trinuclear NiII-LnIII-NiII Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands: Synthesis, Structure, and Magnetic Properties

The reaction of the Schiff base ligand o-OH-C6H4-CH=N-C(CH2OH)3, H4L, with Ni(O2CMe)2∙4H2O and lanthanide nitrate salts in a 4 : 2 : 1 ratio lead to the formation of the trinuclear complexes [Ni2Ln(H3L)4(O2CMe)2](NO3) (Ln = Sm (1), Eu (2), Gd (3), Tb (4)). The complex cations contain the strictly linear NiII-LnIII-NiII moiety. The central LnIII ion is bridged to each of the terminal NiII ions through two deprotonated phenolato groups from two different ligands. Each terminal NiII ion is bound to two ligands in distorted octahedral N2O4 environment. The central lanthanide ion is coordinated to four phenolato oxygen atoms from the four ligands, and four carboxylato oxygen atoms from two acetates which are bound in the bidentate chelate mode. The lattice structure of complex 4 consists of two interpenetrating, supramolecular diamond like lattices formed through hydrogen bonds among neighboring trinuclear clusters. The magnetic properties of 1-4 were studied. For 3 the best fit of the magnetic susceptibility and isothermal M(H) data gave JNiGd = +0.42 cm−1, D = +2.95 cm−1 with gNi = gGd = 1.98. The ferromagnetic nature of the intramolecular Ni···Gd interaction revealed ground state of total spin S = 11/2. The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) parameters for 3 show that the change of the magnetic entropy (−ΔSm) reaches a maximum of 14.2 J kg−1 K−1 at 2 K. A brief literature survey of complexes containing the NiII-LnIII-NiII moiety is discussed in terms of their structural properties.

Low temperature characterization of high efficiency spin-filter Josephson junctions

The interplay between superconducting and ferromagnetic order pa¬rameters in S/F interfaces gives rise to a wide range of peculiar properties with applications in high-efficiency computation and in the emerging field of super¬conducting spintronics. In NbN/GdN/NbN Josephson junctions, GdN barriers give unique properties due to the double insulting and ferromagnetic nature of the material, as demonstrated in previous works. Here we focus on tunneling spectroscopy of these junctions down to 0.3 K when changing the barrier thick¬ness, which contributes to complete a consistent picture on the physics of these junctions and supports the previous indications of equal-spin Cooper pairs con¬tributing to the total supercurrent of the devices.

Effect of Nb3+ Substitution on the Structural, Magnetic, and Optical Properties of Co0.5Ni0.5Fe2O4 Nanoparticles

Co0.5Ni0.5NbxFe2−xO4 (0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.10) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using the hydrothermal approach. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern confirmed the formation of single-phase spinel ferrite. The crystallite size was found to range from 18 to 26 nm. The lattice parameters were found to increase with greater Niobium ion (Nb3+) concentration, caused by the variance in the ionic radii between the Nb3+ and Fe3+. Fourier transform infrared analysis also proved the existence of the spinal ferrite phase. The percent diffuse reflectance (%DR) analysis showed that the value of the band gap increased with growing Nb3+ content. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed the cubic morphology. The magnetization analyses at both room (300 K, RT) and low (10 K) temperatures exhibited their ferromagnetic nature. The results showed that the Nb3+ substitution affected the magnetization data. We found that Saturation magnetization (Ms), Remanence (Mr), and the Magnetic moment ( n B ) decreased with increasing Nb3+. The squareness ratio (SQR) values at RT were found to be smaller than 0.5, which postulate a single domain nature with uniaxial anisotropy for all produced ferrites. However, different samples exhibited SQRs within 0.70 to 0.85 at 10 K, which suggests a magnetic multi-domain with cubic anisotropy at a low temperature. The obtained magnetic results were investigated in detail in relation to the structural and microstructural properties.

Magneto-Dielectric Behaviour of M-Type Hexaferrite/Polymer Nanocomposites

In the present study two sets of nanocomposites consisting of an epoxy resin and BaFe12O19 or SrFe12O19 nanoparticles were successfully developed and characterized morphologically and structurally via scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction spectra. The dielectric response of the nanocomposites was investigated by means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy and their magnetic properties were derived from magnetization tests. Experimental data imply that the incorporation of the ceramic nanoparticles enhances significantly the dielectric properties of the examined systems and their ability to store electrical energy. Dielectric spectra of all systems revealed the presence of three distinct relaxation mechanisms, which are attributed both to the polymer matrix and the nanoinclusions: Interfacial polarization, glass to rubber transition of the polymer matrix and the re-orientation of small polar side groups of the polymer chain. The magnetic measurements confirmed the ferromagnetic nature of the nanocomposites. The induced magnetic properties increase with the inclusion of hexaferrite nanoparticles. The nanocomposites with SrFe12O19 nanoparticles exhibit higher values of coercive field, magnetization, magnetic saturation and remanence magnetization. A magnetic transition was detected in the ZFC/FC curves in the case of the BaFe12O19/epoxy nanocomposites.