Preparation and Characterization of NixMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 Nano-ferrite as NO2 Gas Sensing Material

TL;DR

This study synthesizes NixMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 nano-ferrites via sol-gel auto-combustion, characterizes their structure and magnetic properties, and evaluates their effectiveness as NO2 gas sensors, showing high sensitivity and fast response.

Contribution

It introduces a novel synthesis and comprehensive characterization of NixMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 nano-ferrites for NO2 sensing applications, highlighting their enhanced sensitivity and magnetic properties.

Findings

All samples are single-phase with nano-crystallinity.

Particles exhibit superparamagnetic behavior with soft magnetic properties.

The sample with x=0.20 shows 707.22% sensitivity to NO2.

Abstract

NixMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 nano-ferrites (where x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20) were produced via sol-gel auto-combustion technique. Investigations were done into how the incorporation of Ni ions affects the Mn0.25Mg0.75Fe2O4 ferrite's structure, morphological, magnetic, and NO2 gas sensing features. All the samples are single-phase, based on the structural study utilizing the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern. In terms of the structure of the cubic spinel, according to the XRD study, the crystallite sizes range from 24.30 to 28.32 nm, indicating nano-crystallinity. The synthesis of spherical nanoparticles with a small modification in particle size distribution was verified via FE-SEM images. The study found that the size of particles is tiny enough to act superparamagnetically. The area of hysteresis loop is almost non-existing, thus reflecting typical soft magnetic materials according to magnetic measurements by VSM carried out at room temperature. Furthermore, the conductance responses of the NixMn0.25-xMg0.75Fe2O4 nano-ferrite were measured by exposing the ferrite to oxidizing (NO2) gas at different operating temperatures. The results show that the sensor boasts shorter response and recovery times, as well as a higher sensitivity 707.22% of the sample (x=0.20) for nano-ferrite.