Study of the magnetic properties of Mn‐doped iron titanate nanoparticles fabricated using natural mineral

Abstract

Abstract In this study, iron titanate (FT) and manganese‐doped iron titanate (MFT) nanoparticles were synthesised from a natural mineral, ilmenite ore, using a simple and effective method. X‐ray diffraction analysis confirmed the reduction of crystallite size from 56 to 29 nm with an increase in Mn doping concentration from 0% to 2%. Doping of Mn transformed the agglomerated fine particles into nanosphere‐like morphology with dimensions less than 200 nm. Magnetization studies revealed that FT and MFT were hard ferrimagnetic materials, and beyond 0.8% Mn dopant concentration, reduction in magnetic saturation value of 1.46–1.41 emu g−1 was observed. Resistivity of FT decreased from ≈19 to ≈2 K Ω‐cm with doping Mn and tuning of such electrical property through doping concentration can lead to their application in fabricating spintronic devices. This work suggests a new pathway to synthesise magnetic–semiconducting nanostructures at large scale and in an environment friendly manner from ilmenite ore.

Keywords

• Structure of solid clusters, nanoparticles, nanotubes and nanostructured materials
• Doping and implantation of impurities
• Impurity concentration, distribution, and gradients
• Microstructure
• Electrical properties of other inorganic semiconductors (thin films, low-dimensional and nanoscale structures)
• Ferromagnetism of nonmetals