Influence of Zinc Substitution on the Structural, Dielectric, and Gas-Sensing Properties of MgZnFeO Nanoparticles.

In the present work, MgZnFeO (MZFO) nanoparticles with = 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 for tetrahedral and 390-450 cm 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 CO, O, and N were studied. The nanostructured MZFO exhibited high sensitivity in the order of CO > O ≫ N and showed a good response time of (∼1 min) for CO, demonstrating that MZFO can be a good potential candidate for gas-sensing applications.