Enhancement of electrical and magnetic properties of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles by co-substitution of Li-Cd ions

•Hydrothermal method has proven to be suitable method for controlled size synthesis.•Doped samples exhibits maximum electrical resistivity 7.3 × 107 ohm·cm.•Maximum dielectric loss in frequency 1.5–3 GHz can be made used in microwave devices.•Enhanced magnetic properties render materials to be used in motors and loudspeakers. A series of Li-Cd doped cobalt ferrites CoLixCdxFe2−2xO4 (x = 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25) has been synthesized by hydrothermal method in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as capping agent. XRD data has confirmed the formation of single crystalline cubic phase with average crystallite size of synthesized samples between 24 and 28 nm. For all the samples the resistivity was found to increase with increase in dopants concentration with highest value of 7.3× 107 ohm·cm at Li-Cd content x = 0.1. Dielectric constant values of all the samples follow the typical Maxwell-Wagner type dispersion due to interfacial polarization and were observed to decrease with increase in frequency, which is a typical phenomenon in ferrites. The coercivity (Hc), saturation magnetization (Ms) and remanent magnetization (Mr) of all the samples increase with dopant content, with maximum values of 936 Oe, 54 emug−1 and 30 emug−1 respectively at x = 0.1. The obtained data with improved coercivity, saturation magnetization and remanent magnetization make Li-Cd doped cobalt ferrites as suitable materials for utilization in transformer cores and transmission lines.