Enhanced Magnetization of Sol-Gel Synthesized Pb-Doped Strontium Hexaferrites Nanocrystallites at Low Temperature

Effect of Pb doping on the structural and low temperature magnetic properties of SrPbxFe12-xO19 (x=0,0.1,0.2,0.3,and 0.4), synthesized by sol-gel autocombustion technique, has been investigated. The powder samples were sintered at 800°C for 2 h in order to develop the stable hexagonal phase, characteristic of the SrFe12O19 structure. The consequences of Pb substitution (at iron sites) on various structural parameters like lattice constants, unit cell volume, crystallite size, and porosity have been discussed. Fourier transform infrared frequency bands were utilized to determine the formation of tetrahedral and octahedral clusters of M-type ferrites. Hexagonal texture of the grains, a characteristic of the hexagonal crystal structure of SrFe12O19, was refined by Pb substitution. The magnetic properties, determined using a vibrating sample magnetometer, revealed that saturation magnetization decreased, while coercivity was increased with the increase of Pb contents. However, the increased squareness ratio and hence the energy product motivate the utilization of these ferrite compositions where hard magnetic characteristics are required. The increased values of saturation magnetization were observed at reduced temperature of 200 K, attributable to the better spin alignments of individual magnetic moments at low temperature