Influence of Zinc Substitution on the Structural, Dielectric, and Gas-Sensing Properties of Mg1- xZnxFe2O4 Nanoparticles

Iqra Nazir; Farhan Javaid; Mutawara Mahmood Baig; Muhammad Shoaib Butt; Iftikhar Hussain Gul

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c03781

Influence of Zinc Substitution on the Structural, Dielectric, and Gas-Sensing Properties of Mg_{1- x}Zn_xFe₂O₄ Nanoparticles

ACS Omega. 2023 Sep 14;8(38):34760-34767. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c03781. eCollection 2023 Sep 26.

Authors

Iqra Nazir¹, Farhan Javaid², Mutawara Mahmood Baig², Muhammad Shoaib Butt², Iftikhar Hussain Gul²

Affiliations

¹ School of Natural Sciences (SNS), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12 Campus, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
² Department of Materials Engineering (ME), School of Chemical and Materials Engineering (SCME), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), H-12 Campus, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.

Abstract

In the present work, Mg_1-xZn_xFe₂O₄ (MZFO) nanoparticles with x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.35, and 0.5 were synthesized via a chemical coprecipitation method. The study aimed to explore the effect of substituting Mg with Zn in MZFO on its structural, dielectric, and gas-sensing properties. The spinel phase formation was confirmed using X-ray diffraction, and the morphology of the prepared nanoparticles was revealed using scanning electron microscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis confirmed the band ranges of 500-600 cm^-1 for tetrahedral and 390-450 cm^-1 for octahedral lattice sites. The dielectric data showed that Zn substitution in MZFO decreased both the dielectric constant and loss with increasing frequencies and attained a stagnant value at higher frequencies. Furthermore, the gas-sensing characteristics of Zn-substituted spinel ferrites at room temperature for CO₂, O₂, and N₂ were studied. The nanostructured MZFO exhibited high sensitivity in the order of CO₂ > O₂ ≫ N₂ and showed a good response time of (∼1 min) for CO₂, demonstrating that MZFO can be a good potential candidate for gas-sensing applications.