Comparative study of the physical properties of NiO/CoFe2O4, NiO/Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19, and CoFe2O4/Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19 nanocomposites
摘要
The co-precipitation method was utilized to synthesize NiO, CoFe2O4, and Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19 pure nanophases. The nanocomposites: (0.5NiO/0.5CoFe2O4), (0.5NiO/0.5Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19), and (0.5CoFe2O4/0.5Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19) were prepared by ball milling. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the successful synthesis of all pure samples and nanocomposites. NiFe2O4 appeared in the (0.5NiO/0.5Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19) nanocomposite due to the reaction of α-Fe2O3 with NiO. Transmission electron microscopy showed hexagonal, quasi-spherical, and cubic morphologies of Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19, CoFe2O4, and NiO, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated the existence of Co2+, Ba2+, Sr2+, Fe3+, Ni2+, Ni3+, and O2− oxidation states in the prepared samples. The energy gap values (3.14–3.67 eV) confirmed the semiconductor nature of the nanocomposites. The (0.5NiO/0.5CoFe2O4) exhibited the highest DC conductivity (0.117 S/m at 813 K) among all nanocomposites. The activation energies were below 0.8, suggesting an electronic charge transport. The M-H hysteresis curves of all nanocomposites displayed ferromagnetic behavior. The coercivity of (0.5NiO/0.5Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe12O19) dropped dramatically (16.765 Oe), indicating a weak ferromagnetic behavior. Some important applications of the prepared nanocomposites, depending on their constituents, include supercapacitors, soft ferrites, permanent magnets, magnetic recording media, electromagnetic compatibility, and radar applications.