Effect of heat treatment on microwave absorption properties

of NiZnMgLa ferrite nanoparticles

Yi Liu
n
, Shicheng Wei, Binshi Xu, Yujiang Wang, Haoliang Tian, Hui Tong
National Key Laboratory for Remanufacturing, Academy of Armored Forces Engineering, Beijing 100072, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 November 2012
Received in revised form
13 April 2013
Available online 29 August 2013
Keywords:
Solgel growth
Magnetic materials
Heat treatment
a b s t r a c t
Spinel structure NiZnMgLa ferrites have been prepared by the solgel route and investigated as a
radar absorbing material (RAM) in a frequency range of 118 GHz. The structure and morphological
studies on the nanoparticles of the ferrites have been carried out using X-ray diffraction, scanning
electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The complex permeability and complex
permittivity are measured by a network analyzer. The electromagnetic wave loss and microwave
absorbing property are studied as a function of frequency, annealing temperature and thickness of
the absorber. The results indicate that electromagnetic wave loss of the ferrite only annealed at
850 1C shows two peaks. The reection loss varies with the change of the annealing temperature. The
absorber annealed at 850 1C exhibits the best microwave absorbing properties, which is suitable for
microwave absorption materials.
& 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The production of electromagnetic wave absorbers has
recently been increasing [1]. Among these absorbers, spinel
ferrites, which can be used in 330 GHz band, are becoming
one of the versatile magnetic materials for general use [2].
Spinel NiZn ferrites have many applications in both low and
high frequency devices and play an important role in many
technological applications, due to their high resistivity, low
dielectric loss, mechanical hardness, high Curie temperature
and chemical stability [3]. Various methods have been proposed
for the synthesis of sipnel NiZn ferrite in the past several years, such
as the solgel preparation [4,5], low temperature solid-state reaction
[6,7], co-precipitation method [8] and high energy milling method
[9]. Among these technologies, the solgel route is a method which
can prepare pure ferrite at a relatively low temperature.
The magnetic and electrical properties of ferrites are sensi-
tive to the preparation method and the distribution of cations
[10]. Small amount of additives can be used to modify their
microstructure and hence magnetic properties. Nowadays rare
earth oxides are becoming promising additives to improve the
magnetic properties of ferrite. Many investigations have been
carried out to explore the effect of La substitution on the
properties of NiZn ferrites. However, in some literature
conict results are obtained [11,12]. Ahmed studied the
substitution of rare earth La
3
into the spinel structure of
NiZn ferrites. In his work, a secondary phase appeared due to
the substitution of La
3
, and dielectric constant of the ferrite
showed more than one peak [13]. However, in Gable's study of
the structural and magnetic properties of La substituted
NiCuZn ferrites, no secondary phase was detected in XRD
patterns for the calcined samples even at higher La contents
[14].
Heat treatment process is an important inuencing factor for
the magnetic property of ferrite. Ichiyanagi investigated Mg-
ferrite nanoparticles and found a clear difference in the magne-
tization between the quenched samples and annealed samples
[15]. Pozo Lpez studied the magnetic properties of NiZn ferrite/
SiO
2
nanocomposites synthesized by ball milling and found that
complete transformation of the precursor oxides into NiZn
ferrite was only achieved after the as-milled powders were
annealed at 1273 K in air for 1 h. This heat treatment favored the
formation of NiZn ferrite in detriment of the precursor oxides
[16]. Nevertheless, in some other literature NiZn ferrite formed
the spinel structure at around 350 1C when prepared by the sol
gel method [17]. Therefore, further studies on the effect of heat
treatment and the substitution of La
3
on the magnetic and
microwave absorption property of the ferrite still need to be
done. Although researchers have already synthesized NiZnLa
ferrite [18] and NiZnMg ferrite [19], NiZnMgLa ferrite is
still not studied. In this paper, NiZnMgLa ferrite is synthe-
sized by the solgel methods. The aim of our work is to describe
and evaluate the effect of heat treatment on magnetic and
microwave absorbing properties of the ferrite.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
0304-8853/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2013.08.054
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 10 667 185 41; fax: 86 10 667 171 44.
E-mail address: liuyi5556@sina.com (Y. Liu).
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762
2. Experimental
2.1. Synthesis of ferrite
Nanoparticles ferrites have been synthesized by the conven-
tional solgel method. Analytical grade metal nitrates and citric
acid are used as raw materials. The molar ratios of Ni
2
:Zn
2
:
Mg
2
:La
3
:Fe
3
are 0.5:0.4:0.1:0.01:1.99, which gives a composi-
tion of Ni
0.5
Zn
0.4
Mg
0.1
La
0.01
Fe
1.99
O
4
. The nitrates and citric acid are
weighed in desired stoichiometric proportions and dissolved
separately in the minimum amount of distilled water. The reac-
tants are mixed together and ammonia solution is added to the
solution drop by drop to adjust the pH value of the mixture to 6.
The solution is slowly heated and stirred using a hot plate
magnetic stirrer till it turns into a dark vicous liquid and then it
is dried at 120 1C for 24 h. The dried gels are ignited in order to
obtain loose powders. These as burnt ferrite powders are labeled
as 1#. The heat treatment process is as follows: the powders are
annealed at 650 1C, 750 1C and 850 1C for 2 h and labeled as 2#, 3#
and 4#, respectively. Then these powders are cooled down to
room temperature naturally.
2.2. Characterization
The crystal structure of the obtained particles is recorded by X-
ray diffraction (XRD) using a Rigaku model D/max 2500 system
with 0.154 nm (Cu-K

radiation). The morphology is analyzed

by a HITACHI S-5500 eld emission scanning electron microscope
(SEM). The composition analysis of the ferrites is performed by
energy dispersive spectra (EDS, OXFORD Feature Max). The
valence states of elements are analyzed by X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS, VG Scientic ESCALAB 220i-XL, USA). The
complex permeability and complex permittivity are measured in
the range of 118 GHz by an HP8722ES network analyzer. For this
purpose, the NiZnMgLa ferrite powders are homogeneously
dispersed into the wax matrix and compacted into rings for the
permeability and permittivity measurement. The size of the ring is
7 mm in outer diameter, 3 mm in inner diameter and 2 mm in
thickness. The ferritewax composites contain 60% of ferrite (wt%).
Static magnetic properties are studied using a Lake Shore 7410
vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) with a maximum applied
magnetic eld of 10 kOe.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Structure and morphological study
The X-ray diffraction patterns of the powders are shown in
Fig. 1. The existence of (311) peak around 351 conrms the
formation of spinel structure in the prepared samples. It is found
that all the peaks could be indexed to a spinel phase. Lima
reported that NiZn ferrite calcined in argon atmosphere at
1000 1C/3 h showed single spinel phase structure [20]. In this
work, the NiZnMgLa ferrite powders annealed at 650 1C/2 h
already have single spinel phase. In some literature [21], secondary
phase LaFeO
3
formed upon La substitution for Fe in the ferrite.
However, in our research, the secondary phase is not found in all
the samples. The sharp and strong diffraction peaks also conrm
the good crystallization of the products. The average crystallite
sizes of the samples are calculated using Scherer's relation for the
strongest peak of the (311) plane [22]
D0:9= cos 1
where D is the crystallite size of the particle in nanometer, is the
half-maximum line width and is Bragg angle of diffraction, is
the wavelength of radiation. The calculated crystallite size of the
particles is exhibited in Table 1. It is observed that the average
crystallite size increases with adding temperature. This result is in
accordance with the study of Youse [23]. This is due to the grain
growth of the ferrites.
The microstructures of magnetic NiZnMgLa ferrites annealed
at different temperatures are displayed in Fig. 2(ad). SEM observa-
tions show that nanocrystallites of the ferrites are spherical in
morphology. The average particle sizes of the ferrites are in the
range of 4080 nm. The grain size is larger than data estimated by
the Scherer formula because the instrument errors are not taken
into account. Moreover, the difference is indicative of the fact that
every particle is formed by the aggregation of a number of crystal-
lites or grains [24]. The surface composition of NiZnMgLa ferrite
is distinctly determined with EDS. Fig. 2(e) shows the composition
of the NiZnMgLa ferrite. The predominant composition is made
up of iron and oxygen. In order to determine the valence states of
the elements, surface/near surface of the ferrite is analyzed by XPS
within a range of binding energies of 01400 eV. Core levels of Ni
2p, Zn 2p, Mg 1s, and Fe 2p can be identied in Fig. 3(a). The ne
spectra of the Fe 2p peaks are displayed in Fig. 3(b). The Fe 2p3/2
spectrum and Fe 2p1/2 spectrum obtained from the present study
generally show two distinguishable main peaks of around 710.4 eV
and 723.5 eV, respectively, which demonstrates the presence of
Fe
3
cation. Meanwhile, the presence of the peak around 713.9 eV
indicates that Fe
3
species exist in more than one chemical state.
The two chemical states may be related to the different coordina-
tion environments of Fe
3
the tetrahedral (A) environment and
octahedral (B) environment of Fe
3
cations in spinel structure:
Fe
A
3
at higher binding energy and Fe
B
3
at lower binding energy
[25]. In this ferrite, the number of Fe
B
3
cations is much more than
that of Fe
A
3
cations. This result is in accordance with Priyadharsi-
ni's report [24], which used X-ray diffraction to detect the lattice
constant and cation distribution of Ni
x
Zn
1x
Fe
2
O
4
. In his report the
percentage of Fe
A
3
is only 27% when x0.6.
3.2. Microwave absorption properties of NiZnMgLa ferrite
It is well known that the basic principle of microwave absorp-
tion property is to consume electromagnetic wave energy by
increasing the energy conversion when the electromagnetic wave
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
4#
3#
2#
(
4
4
0
)
(
5
1
1
)
(
4
2
2
)
(
4
0
0
)
(
2
2
0
)
(
3
1
1
)
2 Theta (degree)
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
a
.
u
.
)
1#
Fig. 1. X-ray diffraction of NiZnMgLa ferrites.
Table 1
Calculated grain size of NiZnMgLa ferrite.
Sample 1# 2# 3# 4#
Crystallite size (nm) 20 20 23 26
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762 58
signals move to the microwave absorption material. The electro-
magnetic wave loss is characterized by the dielectric loss angle
tangent and the magnetic loss angle tangent. The dielectric loss
angle tangent and the magnetic loss angle tangent are calculated
according to the following formulas:
tan

2
tan

3
Besides the gross loss angle tangent is calculated by adding tan

and tan

[26]
tan tan

tan

4
It is clear that the higher electromagnetic loss, the better
attenuation and microwave absorption of ferrites can be improved.
Fig. 4(a) shows dielectric loss angle tangent (tan

) of the ferrites
system. It can be seen dielectric loss angle tangent of 1# ferrite
(untreated ferrite) is much more than annealed ferrites. The value
of tan

is similar to annealed ferrites in the frequency of

110 GHz. However, there is some difference for the annealed
ferrites in the frequency of 1018 GHz. Dielectric loss angle
tangent of 4# ferrite (annealed at 850 1C) increases much more
than the ferrite annealed at 650 1C and 750 1C. Fig. 4(b) exhibits
the magnetic loss angle tangent of NiZnMgLa ferrite. The
mechanism of magnetic loss is the lag of domain walls with
respect to the applied alternating eld and imperfections in the
lattice [27]. It can be seen that the magnetic loss angle tangent
increases with adding temperature. It is attributed to the increase
of the crystallization degree. Moreover, the ferrite annealed at
850 1C shows another magnetic loss peak in the frequency of 10
16 GHz. However, this peak is not found in 1#, 2# and 3# ferrites.
Fig. 4(c) shows the gross loss of NiZnMgLa ferrites. In this
picture, 4# ferrite (annealed at 850 1C) shows two electromagnetic
loss frequency bands: 18 GHz and 1216 GHz. The peak value of
gross loss is 0.429 at the frequency of 1.5 GHz and 0.387 at the
frequency of 13.4 GHz, meanwhile, only one gross loss peak is
found in 1#, 2# and 3# ferrites. The peak values of gross loss of 1#,
2# and 3# ferrites are 0.427, 0.308 and 0.345, respectively. The
peak of electromagnetic loss happens when the applied eld
frequency matches with the processing frequency of magnetic
spins in ferrites. This matching leads to energy transfer from the
eld to the ferrite system in orienting the dipole and thus
resonance occurs at the proper frequency [27,28]. Moreover, the
value of magnetic loss is larger than dielectric loss for the annealed
ferrite, which means magnetic loss plays a dominant role in gross
loss. The result is just contrary to the as-burnt ferrite.
Fig. 2. SEM morphology and EDS composition analysis of NiZnMgLa ferrites. (a) 1# ferrite, (b) 2# ferrite, (c) 3# ferrite, (d) 4# ferrite and (e) EDS analysis of 1# ferrite.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762 59
The reection loss is carried out based on the model of a single
layer plane wave absorber. The reection loss is described as the
following formulas [29]:
Z
in
Z
0

r
=
r
p
tanh j2f d
m
=c

r
p
5
R 20 lg Z
in
Z
0
=Z
in
Z
0

6
where
r
and
r
are the complex permeability and complex permittiv-
ity, respectively. Z
0
1 and f is frequency, in free space, c is the velocity
of light and d is thickness. To satisfy zero-reection condition, the
impedance matching condition of the perfect absorbing properties is
given by ZZ
0
, which can be ideally achieved when the material
presents |
r
| |
r
|, but in practical condition, is rarely achieved. There-
fore, the second concept (matched-wave-impedance) is used to satisfy
this condition. The wave impedance at the surface of the metal-backed
material layer is made equal to the intrinsic impedance of free
space [19]. This condition is satised at a particular matching thickness
and matching frequency, where minimum reection loss would occur.
Reection loss is simulated and calculated by MATLAB software based
on the formula. Fig. 5(a) shows the simulated relationship between
frequency and reection loss of NiZnMgLa ferrite samples at the
thickness of 3 mm. It is observed that reection loss of 4# ferrite
reaches minimum value 10 dB at the frequency of 13.7 GHz. The
frequency bandwidth below 5 dB ranges from 11.2 GHz to 16.8 GHz.
However, reection loss of both 2# and 3# ferrites is above 5 dB in
the whole frequency range. 1# ferrite (as burnt ferrite) reaches a
minimum reection loss of 8 dB at 12.7 GHz. The results suggest
that 850 1C annealing temperature is benet for microwave absorption
property of the ferrite system. Therefore 4# ferrite can be used as RAM
in X-band frequency and Ku-band frequency. It should be noted that
NiZn ferrites were prepared through the solgel method in Ting's
literature [30]. The ferrite powders were calcined at 900 1C for 2 h. The
minimum reection loss was 13 dB at 7.5 GHz with a 5 dB
bandwidth in the frequency range of 212 GHz. In this work, the
corresponding reection frequency under 5 dB is in the range of
1117 GHz, which extends the frequency to Ku-band. If combined with
NiZn ferrite, the frequency bandwidth of the composite nearly covers
the whole 218 GHz.
Furthermore, microwave-absorbing property is not only related
to the absorber, but also related to the thickness of the material
and the frequency [31]. The above-mentioned formulas indicate
there is a matching thickness at a special frequency for a magnetic
material. Within the microwave region, minimum reection loss of
ferrite materials usually occurs at around a quarter-wavelength
thickness of the material. There is a proper loss factor for this
particular thickness. The minimum reections can be obtained at a
1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
Ni 2p
Zn 2p
Fe 2p
O 1s
Mg 1s
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
c
p
s
)
Binding Energy (eV)
740 730 720 710 700 690
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
Fe
3+
A
I
n
t
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
c
p
s
)
Binding Energy (eV)
Fe
3+
B
Fe 2p
3/2
Fig. 3. XPS spectra of NiZnMgLa ferrite annealed at 850 1C (a) survey scan
and (b) Fe 2p.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
4#
3#
2#
D
i
e
l
e
c
t
r
i
c

l
o
s
s

a
n
g
l
e

t
a
n
g
e
n
t
Frequency/GHz
1#
2#
3#
4#
1#
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Frequency/GHz
3#
4#
M
a
g
n
e
t
i
c

l
o
s
s

a
n
g
l
e

t
a
n
g
e
n
t
1#
2#
3#
4#
1#
2#
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
1#
2#
3#
4#
4#
3#
2#
G
r
o
s
s

l
o
s
s
Frequency/GHz
1#
Fig. 4. The electromagnetic wave loss of NiZnMgLa ferrites (a) dielectric loss
angle tangent, (b) magnetic loss angle tangent and (c) gross loss.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762 60
given frequency if the thickness of the absorber satises the
following equation [32]:
d
nc
4f
0

r
j j
q n 1; 3; 5; 7
where
r
,
r
, f
0
, c, and d are the complex permittivity, complex
permeability, frequency, light velocity and absorber thickness,
respectively. Fig. 5(b) exhibits the reection loss at different
thicknesses of 4# ferrite. The ferrite achieves minimum reection
loss at the thickness of 3 mm. If the thickness increases continu-
ally, on the contrary, the reection loss would decrease. It is an
unrealistic goal to add the weight of RAM in aircraft. In this work,
the minimum reection loss increases and subsequently decreases
with adding thickness. According to the microwave absorption
theory, when an electromagnetic wave strikes the surface of an
absorber, it can be partially transmitted and partially reected. The
partially transmitted wave is reected on the surface of the
conductive layer, generating multiple internal reections. These
internal reections produce multiple waves that emerge from the
absorber surface, out-of-phase by 1801. Considering the frequency
of interest, if the absorber's thickness is equal to d, the sum of the
emerging wave and the reected electromagnetic wave is canceled
out at the air-interface on the surface of absorber. If the thickness
is not equal to d, complete canceling does not occur and the
microwave absorption is lower [19].
3.3. Magnetic study
The hysteresis loops are measured in order to determine
parameters such as saturation magnetization (M
s
), remnant
magnetization (M
r
) and coercivity (H
c
). Fig. 6 gives the magnetic
hysteresis loops of the present ferrite system at room temperature.
This curve is typical of a soft magnetic material. The M
s
values of
both 1# and 4# ferrites tend to be saturated. The M
s
of 4# ferrite
reaches 63 emu/g while M
s
of 1# ferrite is only about 48 emu/g.
These physical properties are related to the size increment due to
heat treatment. The M
s
value of our Ni
0.5
Zn
0.4
Mg
0.1
La
0.01
Fe
1.99
O
4
ferrite is larger than Ni
0.45
Zn
0.45
Mg
0.1
Fe
2
O
4
ferrite synthesized by
Peng [33] and Ni
0.4
Zn
0.5
Mg
0.1
Fe
2
O
4
ferrite synthesized by Singh
[34]. The M
s
values of Ni
0.45
Zn
0.45
Mg
0.1
Fe
2
O
4
ferrite and
Ni
0.4
Zn
0.5
Mg
0.1
Fe
2
O
4
ferrite are 42.85 emu/g and 36 emu/g, respec-
tively. The difference may be related to higher nickel content in
our ferrite than the other two ferrites. It can be explained that the
addition of nickel favors the AB exchange energy and dilutes the
BB super exchange energy because Ni
2
prefers to occupy B-site
[24]. However, the addition of La
3
decreases saturation magne-
tization because the net magnetic moment of non-magnetic La
3
is zero and thus decreases BB interactions [27]. M
s
value increases
in the end because the addition of La is less than nickel.
4. Conclusions
Nanocrystalline particles of NiZnMgLa ferrites have been
successfully synthesized by the solgel auto combustion route. The
microstructure and microwave absorbing properties of the ferrites
clearly show a dependence on the heat treatment. The present
samples exhibit single-phase spinel structure and no second phase
is found in this study. XRD analysis reveals the average crystallite
size of these particles is in the range of 2026 nm. The crystallite
size increases with the increase of the annealing temperature. It is
found that electromagnetic loss and reection loss of the ferrite
system are greatly improved by increasing the annealing tem-
perature. The ferrite annealed at 850 1C shows microwave absorp-
tion property. Electromagnetic wave loss of the ferrite exhibits two
microwave absorption peaks: 0.429 at the frequency of 1.5 GHz
and 0.387 at the frequency of 13.4 GHz, respectively. The matching
thickness of the ferrite is 3 mm. The hysteresis loops demonstrate
the ferrite is typical of a soft magnetic material and M
s
value of the
ferrite annealed at 850 1C is 63 emu/g.
Acknowledgments
The paper is nancially supported by 973 Project (2011CB013403)
and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51222510).
The authors gratefully extend thank to the support of all members
of the project working group.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
-12
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4#
3#
2#
1#
3#
1#
4#
Frequency/GHz
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
/
d
B
2#
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
-12
-10
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
4mm
1mm
2mm
3mm
R
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
/
d
B
Frequency/GHz
Fig. 5. Reection loss of NiZnMgLa ferrites (a) the ferrite annealed at different
heat treatment temperature and (b) 4# ferrite at different thickness.
-10000 -5000 0 5000 10000
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
4#
M
o
m
e
n
t
/
M
a
s
s
(
e
m
u
/
g
)
Field(Oe)
1#
Fig. 6. Hysteresis loops of NiZnMgLa ferrite.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762 61
References
[1] M. Begard, K. Bobzin, G. Bolelli, Thermal spraying of Co, Ti-substituted Ba-
hexaferrite coatings for electromagnetic wave absorption applications, Surface
and Coatings Technology 203 (2009) 33123319.
[2] Martha Pardavi-Horvath, Microwave applications of soft ferrites, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 215216 (2000) 171183.
[3] K.H. Wu, F.C. Yang, Synthesis and characterization of organically modied
silicate/NiZn ferrite hybrid coatings, Acta Materialia 55 (2007) 507515.
[4] X.H. He, G.S. Song, J.H. Zhu, Non-stoichiometric NiZn ferrite by solgel
processing, Materials Letters 59 (2005) 19411944.
[5] A. Verma, T.C. Goel, R.G. Mendiratta, M.I. Alam, Dielectric properties of NiZn
ferrites prepared by the citrate precursor method, Materials Science and
Engineering: B 60 (1999) 156162.
[6] J. Hu, M. Yan, W. Luo, Preparation of high-permeability NiZn ferrites at low
sintering temperatures, Physica B 368 (2005) 251260.
[7] Amiri Gh.R., M.H. Youse, M.R. Abolhassani, S. Manouchehri, M.H Keshavarz,
S. Fatahian, Magnetic properties and microwave absorption in NiZn and Mn
Zn ferrite nanoparticles synthesized by low-temperature solid-state reaction,
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 323 (2011) 730734.
[8] B. Parvatheeswara Rao, O. Caltun, W.S. Cho, Chong-Oh KimCheol Gi Kim,
Synthesis and characterization of mixed ferrite nanoparticles, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) e812e814.
[9] L.M. Yu, J.C. Zhang, Y.S. Liu, C. Jing, S.X. Cao, Fabrication, structure and
magnetic properties of nanocrystalline NiZn-ferrite by high-energy milling,
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 288 (2005) 5459.
[10] S.F. Mansour, Structural and magnetic investigations of sub-nano MnMg
ferrite prepared by wet method, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
323 (2011) 17351740.
[11] M.A. Ahmed, N. Okasha, M.M. El-Sayed, Enhancement of the physical proper-
ties of rare-earth-substituted MnZn ferrites prepared by ash method,
Ceramics International 33 (2007) 4958.
[12] E. Rezlescu, N. Rezlescu, P.D. Popa, Fine-grained MgCu ferrite with ionic
substitutions used as humidity sensor, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic
Materials 290291 (2005) 10011004.
[13] M.A. Ahmed, E. Ateia, L.M. Salah, A.A. Ei-Gamal, Structural and electrical
studies on La
3
substituted NiZn ferrites, Materials Chemistry and Physics 92
(2005) 310321.
[14] M.A. Gabal, A.M. Asiri, Y.M. Al Angari, On the structural and magnetic
properties of La-substituted NiCuZn ferrites prepared using egg-white, Cera-
mics International 37 (2011) 26252630.
[15] Y. Ichiyanagi, M. Kubota, S. Moritake, Y. Kanazawa, T. Yamada, T. Uehashi,
Magnetic properties of Mg-ferrite nanoparticles, Journal of Magnetism and
Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) 23782380.
[16] G. Pozo Lpez, S.P. Silvetti, S.E. Urreta, A.C. Carreras, Structure and magnetic
properties of NiZn ferrite/SiO
2
nanocomposites synthesized by ball milling,
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 505 (2010) 808813.
[17] X.H. He, Q.Q. Zhang, Z.Y. Ling, Kinetics and magnetic properties of solgel
derived NiZn ferrite-SiO
2
composites, Materials Letters 57 (2003) 30313036.
[18] Q.L. Li, Y.F. Wang, C.B. Chang, Study of Cu, Co, Mn and La doped NiZn ferrite
nanorods synthesized by the coprecipitation method, Journal of Alloys and
Compounds 505 (2010) 523526.
[19] A.R. Bueno, M.L. Gregori, M.C.S. Nbrega, Microwave-absorbing properties of
Ni
0.50x
Zn
0.50x
Me
2x
Fe
2
O
4
(MeCu, Mn, and Mg) ferritewax composite in
X-band frequencies, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 320 (2008)
864870.
[20] U.R. Lima, M.C. Nasar, M.C. Rezende, J.H. Araugo, NiZn nanoferrite for radar-
absorbing material, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 320 (2008)
16661670.
[21] P.K. Roy, B.B. Nayak, J. Bera, Study on electro-magnetic properties of La
sbstituted Ni-Cu-Zn ferrite synthesized by auto-combustion method, Journal
of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 320 (2008) 11281132.
[22] H.T. Zhao, X.D. Sun, C.H. Mao, J. Du, Preparation and microwave-absorbing
properties of NiFe
2
O
4
polystyrene composites, Physica B 404 (2009) 6972.
[23] M.H. Youse, S. Manouchehri, A. Arab, M. Mozaffari, Gh.R. Amiri, J. Amighian,
Preparation of cobaltzinc ferrite (Co
0.8
Zn
0.2
Fe
2
O
4
) nanopowder via combus-
tion method and investigation of its magnetic properties, Materials Research
Bulletin 45 (2010) 17921795.
[24] P. Priyadharsini, A. Pradeep, G. Chandrasekaran, Novel combustion route of
synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline mixed ferrites of NiZn,
Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 321 (2009) 18981903.
[25] F. Li, X.F. Liu, Q.Z. Yang, J.J. Liu, David G. Evans, D. Xue, Synthesis and
characterization of Ni
1x
Zn
x
Fe
2
O
4
spinel ferrites from tailored layered double
hydroxide precuresors, Materials Research Bulletin 40 (2005) 12441255.
[26] Y.Q. Li, Y. Huang, S.H. Qi, F.F. Niu, L. Niu, Preparation and magnetic and
electromagnetic properties of La-doped strontium ferrite lms, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 323 (2011) 22242232.
[27] Pawan Kumar, S.K. Sharma, M. KnobelM. Singh, Effect of La
3
doping on the
electric, dielectric and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite processed by co-
precipitation technique, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 508 (2010) 115118.
[28] A.K. Subramani, N. Matsushita, T. Watanabe, M. Tada, M. Abe, K. Kondo,
M. Yoshimura, Spin-sprayed ferrite lms with high resistivity and high-
frequency magnetic loss for GHz conducted noise suppressors, Materials
Science and Engineering: B 148 (2008) 136140.
[29] Harun Bayrakdar, Complex permittivity, complex permeability and microwave
absorption properties of ferriteparafn polymer composites, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 323 (2011) 18821885.
[30] T.H. Ting, R.P. Yu, Y.N. Jau, Synthesis and microwave absorption characteristics
of polyaniline/NiZn ferrite composites in 240 GHz, Materials Chemistry and
Physics 126 (2011) 364368.
[31] H. Zou, S.H. Li, L.Q. Zhang, S.N. Yan, et al., Determining factors for high
performance silicone rubber microwave absorbing materials, Journal of
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 323 (2011) 16431651.
[32] X.G. Huang, J. Zhang, L.X. Wang, Q.T. Zhang, Simple and reproducible
preparation of barium hexagonal ferrite by adsorbent combustion method,
Journal of Alloys and Compounds 540 (2012) 137140.
[33] C.H. Peng, C.C. Hwang, J. Wan, J.S. Tsai, S.Y. Chen, Microwave-absorbing
characteristics for the composites of thermal-plastic polyurethane (TPU)-
bonded NiZn-ferrites prepared by combustion synthesis method, Materials
Science and Engineering: B 117 (2005) 2736.
[34] N. Singh, A. Agarwal, S. Sanghi, P. Singh, Effect of magnesium substitution on
dielectric and magnetic properties of NiZn ferrite, Physica B 406 (2011)
687692.
Y. Liu et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 349 (2014) 5762 62