Atomic-level cation occupation and magnetic properties of Ce 3+ -doped ZnFe 2 O 4 spinel ferrite †

Zeng, Xue, Liu, Jiaqian, Chu, Ke, He, Jie, Zhang, Junwei, Zhu, Hanxing ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3209-6831 and Peng, Yong 2025. Atomic-level cation occupation and magnetic properties of Ce 3+ -doped ZnFe 2 O 4 spinel ferrite †. RSC Advances 15 (26) , pp. 20908-20915. 10.1039/d5ra01515d

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Abstract

Rare-earth doping has been proven to be an effective strategy for tailoring the magnetic properties of ferrites. In this study, we report a direct experimental observation of the precise occupation of cations in Ce-doped spinel ZnFe2O4 ferrites. We demonstrate that divalent Zn2+ cations and trivalent Fe3+ cations respectively occupy all tetrahedral A sites and all octahedral B sites in ZnFe2O4 nanofibers, which aligns well with the normal spinel structure. Rare-earth Ce3+ ions preferentially occupy the octahedral sites of the ZnFe2O4 lattice, while the excess Fe3+ ions are displaced to the tetrahedral sites. The observed behavior is possibly due to the greater bond energy of Ce3+–O2− relative to Fe3+–O2−, requiring additional energy for Ce3+ to substitute into the B-sites. This cation redistribution leading to the appearance of 4f–3d orbital couplings results in the changes in magnetic performance at room temperature. With increasing Ce3+ doping concentration, the saturation magnetization (Ms) first increases before reaching a maximum and subsequently decreases. ZnFe2O4 nanofibers doped with 0.05 mmol Ce3+ exhibit the highest Ms value due to the enhanced A–O–B super-exchange interaction.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Engineering
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/, Start Date: 2025-06-20
Publisher:	Royal Society of Chemistry
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 June 2025
Date of Acceptance:	30 May 2025
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2025 15:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/179320

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