Enhanced electrical properties in Nd doped cobalt ferrite nano-particles

Spinel ferrites are important class of compounds which has variety of electrical, magnetic and catalytic applications. A small amount of rare earth element causes modification in structural, electrical and magnetic properties of ferrite materials for practical applications. Neodymium doped cobalt ferrites with composition CoNdxFe2-xO4 where x is 0.1 has been synthesized by sol-gel method. Sol-gel method was preferred because it has good control over stoichiometry, crystallite size and particle size distribution. Characterization was done by using X-Ray Diffraction ( XRD) technique for structural analysis and crystal structure was found to be spinel. Particles like morphology was observed in micrographs obtained by Scanning Electron Microscopy ( SEM). Thermal analysis of sample has been done which includes Thermogravimetric analysis ( TGA) and Differential Scanning calorimetry ( DSC). Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy ( FT-IR) of samples was also performed. DC resistivity as a function of temperature has been studied and its shows direct dependence on temperature and inverse dependence on the concentration of Nd dopant. The studied material is a potential candidate for resistive random access memory application.