Electrical Conduction Mechanism and Dielectric Properties of Spherical Shaped Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticles Synthesized by Co-Precipitation Method

On the basis of dielectric measurements performed in a wide temperature range (173⁻373 K), a comprehensive analysis of the dielectric and electrical properties of magnetite nanoparticles electrical conduction mechanism of compressed spherical shaped Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles was proposed. The electrical conductivity of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles was related to two different mechanisms (correlated barrier hopping and non-overlapping small polaron tunneling mechanisms); the transition between them was smooth. Additionally, role of grains and grain boundaries with charge carrier mobility and with observed hopping mechanism was described in detail. It has been confirmed that conductivity dispersion (as a function of frequencies) is closely related to both the long-range mobility (conduction mechanism associated with grain boundaries) and to the short-range mobility (conduction mechanism associated with grains). Calculated electron mobility increases with temperature, which is related to the decreasing value of hopping energy for the tunneling of small polarons. The opposite scenario was observed for the value of electron hopping energy.