Study of the structural, electrical, dielectric properties and transport mechanisms of Cu0.5Fe2.5O4 ferrite nanoparticles for energy storage, photocatalytic and microelectronic applications

Abstract

Cu0.5Fe2.5O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by the self-combustion method whose XRD and FTIR analyzes confirm the formation of the desired spinel phase. The thermal evolution of conduction shows a semiconductor behaviour explained by a polaronic transport mechanism governed by the Non-overlapping Small Polaron Tunnelling (NSPT) model. DC conductivity and hopping frequency are positively correlated. The scaling of the conductivity leads to a single universal curve where the scaling parameter α has positive values, which testifies to the presence of Coulomb interactions between the mobile particles. Conduction and relaxation processes are positively correlated by similar activation energies. Nyquist diagrams are characterized by semicircular arcs perfectly modeled by an equivalent electrical circuit (R//C//CPE) indicating the contribution of the grains. The dielectric behaviour shows a strong predominance of conduction by the phenomenological theory of Maxwell-Wagner. The low values of electrical conductivity and dielectric loss and the high value of permittivity, make our compound a promising candidate for energy storage, photocatalytic and microelectronic applications.