Investigation of physical and magnetic properties of boron-done CuFeO2 material synthesized by sol-gel method

In this study, antiferromagnetic semiconductor CuFeO2 and boron doped (CuFe1-xBxO2) (x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.02, 0.05, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20) samples, which attract attention with their technological applications, were synthesized by sol-gel method. Structural and magnetic properties of these synthesized samples were investigated. Structural characterization of the samples was carried out using X-ray techniques (XRD and XAFS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. Magnetic properties were determined by M-T, M-H measurements and AC susceptibility measurements. All samples have similar M-T trends in both ZFC and FC conditions. This indicates that the substitution of Fe with B in CuFe1-xBxO2 does not affect the main magnetic characteristics of CuFeO2. Bifurcations between the ZFC and FC curves are observed in all samples due to the magnetic metastability of the samples. The magnetic metastability is due to either the blocking of the magnetic moments of the fine nanoparticles below the blocking temperature or the transition from the spin-glass state to the more stable ferromagnetic state. All samples behave as a ferromagnetic characteristic in the temperature range 10-300 K. The substitution of boron with Fe ions in the main CuFeO2 lattice reduces the saturation and remnant magnetization, while the coercive field is enhanced by the high boron content in the structure. Key Words: Delafossit, CuFe1-xBxO2, XAFS, Synchrotron