An Extensive Study of Electrical Properties of MnFe2O4 Nano-Ferrite

Nanocrystalline manganese ferrite (MnFe2O4) was prepared through a citrate gel route and characterized for its detailed electrical properties. The XRD result indicates the formation of a single-phase cubic spinel structure having Fd-3m space group and the average crystallite size was found to be 21.31 nm. The variations of dielectric constant (epsilon '), dielectric loss (tan delta) and ac (sigma(ac)) conductivity were studied as a function of temperature (23-300 degrees C) at different frequencies. The dielectric parameters such as dielectric constant, loss tangent and ac conductivity were found to increase with increasing temperature due to hopping of charge carriers between Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions and Maxwell-Wagner type of interfacial polarization. The DC electrical resistivity measurement was carried out by two-probe method in the temperature range of 35-120 degrees C which showed decrease in the resistivity with increasing temperature confirmally the typical semiconducting behavior of the sample.