Chromium doping effects on structural and dielectric properties of Mn-Zn cobaltites

The effect of transition metal Cr2+ ion as a dopant of Zn2+ in Mn0.5Zn0.5Co2O4 is investigated. Co-doped Mn0.5Zn0.5-xCrxCo2O4 (x = 0, 0.3 and 0.5) cobaltites were prepared by solid-state reaction route. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that the samples prepared are polycrystalline single-phase cubic spinel in structure having a space group Fd3m. An increase in average particle size observed with Cr2+ doping. However other structural parameters such as X-ray density, micro strain and dislocation density shows almost a similar decreasing trend with increase in Cr2+. High value of permittivity ∼105 is observed for the parent Mn0.5Zn0.5Co2O4 and shows a substantial decrease with increase in the Cr2+ doping. Higher doping of Cr2+ also increases the dielectric loss and hence limits its technological importance. At lower frequencies ac conductivity has been found to increase with increase in Cr2+ content.