Influence of cobalt on magnetic, dielectric and electrochemical properties of copper ferrite nanoparticles via hydrothermal method

Nanoparticles of undoped and cobalt doped copper ferrite (CoxCu1-xFe2O4) were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The results of XRD had confirmed the formation of single phase cubic spinel structure and the crystallite size was decreased from 41 to 30nmwith increasing dopant (Co) content. FT-IR spectra exhibited the two promising absorption bands which corresponded to intrinsic stretching vibrations of metals with oxygenat 454 and 573 cm−1 intetrahedral(A) and octahedral(B) sites, respectively. FESEM and HRTEM revealed the agglomeration of spherical particles which existed within the nanorange. The DLS and Zeta potential measurements found the stability of the nanoparticles with good conductive nature. UV-DRS revealed the decrease in bandgap with decrease in the crystallite size due to defect levels. XPS revealed the chemical states of metallic species like Cu2+,Fe3+ and Co2+. The dielectric study revealed the increase of AC conductivity with the increase infrequency. Magnetic parameters like, Ms, Mr, Hc and K were obtained from magnetic hysteresis looprevealed ferromagnetic and pseudo-single domain nature of the nanoparticles. The electrochemical properties studied by cyclic voltammetry confirmed the pseudocapacitive behaviour with high specific capacitance at a low scan rate for the electrode material.