Study on Conduction Mechanism, Ferrous Ion Concentration, Oxygen Deficiency, and Fermi Energy Determination from a Thermal Variation of Seebeck Coefficient Measurement for Zn 0.3 Mn 0.7+ x Si x Fe 2-2 x O 4 Ferrite Series

The compositional and temperature (T = 300 – 525 K) dependence of Seebeck coefficient measurement has been carried out on microcrystalline ferrite samples of Zn0.3Mn0.7+xSixFe2-2xO4 (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) series. The probable conduction mechanism is the exchange of electrons between Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions on the octahedral interstitial site of the spinel structure. The absolute concentration of ferrous and ferric ions has been deduced that used to determine the actual occupancy of metallic cations, oxygen deficiency, and to describe the compositional variation of dc resistivity. Finally, the Fermi energy values at T = 0 K have been derived.