Investigations on the temperature dependent electrical and magnetic properties of NiTiO3 by molten salt synthesis

Submicron-sized NiTiO3 particles were successfully synthesized by simple molten salt method. The phase purity and crystal structure was confirmed through X-ray diffraction. The characteristics bands of NiO and TiO were identified using Fourier Transform Infra-red spectrum. The SEM and TEM images shows that the particles are lying in the range of 150–300 nm and selected area electron diffraction pattern (SAED) infers the single crystalline nature of NiTiO3. The impedance spectra elucidate the grain interior conducting mechanism and semi-conducting nature of NiTiO3 at elevated temperatures. The frequency dependent conductance spectra were found to obey Jonscherʹs power law and a maximum value of conductivity observed was 2 × 10−5 S cm−1 at 520 °C. The magnetic susceptibility measurement infers the antiferromagnetic behavior with the Neel temperature (TN) of 14.9 K. The increase in coercivity below TN reveals the coexistence of antiferromagnetic with superparamagnetic behavior. B–H curve represents the first order phase transition from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition.