Peculiar magnetic behavior and structural, electrical, dielectric properties of substituted R-type hexagonal ferrites

•A series of R-type hexagonal ferrites were prepared by Sol-Gel method.•The XRD analysis showed that the R-type hexagonal structure.•The c/a ratio of these samples falls in the range of R-type hexagonal ferrites.•The dielectric properties changes with the increase of Pr3+ contents.•The peculiar magnetic properties were observed with Pr substitution. A series of rare earth Pr3+ element substituted, Sr1-xPrxMn2Fe4O11 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.06, 0.1) R-type hexagonal ferrites has been synthesized by adopting the Sol-gel method. The influence of Pr-substitution on its structural, electrical, dielectric and magnetic behavior was examined. XRD patterns indicate the single phase for all the samples. The lattice parameters and unit cell volume changed with the substitution of Pr3+ contents. The electrical resistivity of the sample significantly varied with the substitution of Pr3+ ions. The sample with the Pr3+ concentration x = 0.1 was observed to have highest resistivity among the others. The dielectric constant was found to decrease at high frequencies for all samples. The tangent loss revealed the hopping type conduction between Fe3+ and Fe2+ sites. The increase in AC conductivity was observed as a function of frequency. The sample with concentration x = 0.1 revealed the maximum value of polarization. A peculiar magnetic trend was observed for all samples upon the substitution of Pr-contents. The unsubstituted sample exhibited the soft ferrimagnetic properties while the paramagnetic behavior was observed for Pr concentration x = 0.02 and last two concentrations (x = 0.06 and 0.1) unveiled the superparamagnetic nature.