A study of magnetic properties of Y–Ni–Mn substituted Co₂Z-type nanohexaferrites via vibrating sample magnetometry

Z-type nanohexaferrites has attracted substantial attention in the field of materials science especially in the research areas of high frequency and microwave devices applications due to their excellent magnetic properties in comparison with the spinel ferrites. A series of Ba_1.5Sr_1.5Co_2−xY_xMn_yNi_zFe_24−y−zO₄₁ (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20; y = z = 0.0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00) Z-type hexaferrites were fabricated with the help of sol–gel auto-combustion method in order to achieve its better microstructural and magnetic properties. The crystallographic structure of prepared specimens was characterized by XRD which revealed the presence of Z-type single-phase hexagonal structure with some additional phases accompanied by P6₃/mmc space group. The average particle size calculated by Scherrer formula was found to be in the range of 40–55 nm. The FTIR spectrum of synthesized specimens was observed in the range of 400–600 cm⁻¹ which confirms our microstructural results to a great extent. From the M–H hysteresis loops, magnetic parameters such as saturation magnetization (M_s) (44.04–35.59 emu/g) and coercivity (H_c) (42.3–248.96 Oe) were measured and it was observed that the synthesized specimens exhibit excellent characteristics of soft ferrite which make it suitable for the multilayer chip inductors, electromagnets, and magnetic storage devices applications.