Magnetic and Microwave Absorbing Properties of Cerium Substituted Zinc Ferrite Synthesized Using Milling Technique

Magnetic and microwave absorbing properties of cerium-substituted zinc ferrite synthesized using the milling technique have been studied. Cerium substituted on zinc ferrite was synthesized from ZnO, Ce2O3, and Fe2O3 powders in a mole ratio to the form of ZnCexFe(2−x)O4 (x = 0.01 up to 0.05) by solid-state reaction. The mixture of these compounds was milled using the high energy milling (HEM) technique and sintered at 1200 °C for 5 h. The identification result of the XRD shows that all samples are a single phase that follows the structure of ZnFe2O4. The TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) image of ZnCexFe(2−x)O4 powders show that all samples have homogenous morphology but not uniform powder with particle sizes of about 100–500 nm. The magnetic properties of the samples were analyzed using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The result shows ferromagnetic behavior, with the Ms value around 19.37 up to 8.03 emu/g and the Hc value around 134–324 Oe. Microwave absorption ability was measured using VNA (Vector Network Analyzer), and their results indicated that the RL curve was deeper with increasing Ce3+ ions concentration. The best RL shows the ZnCexFe(2−x)O4 sample with a value of x = 0.05, i.e., 17.62 dB at a frequency of 10.76 GHz. It means that ZnCe0.5Fe1.95O4 powder can absorb microwaves at 98.26% at a frequency of 10.76 GHz.