Sonochemical synthesis, structural, magnetic and grain size dependent electrical properties of NdVO4 nanoparticles

•Different shape of NdVO4 nanoparticles were prepared by sonochemical method using various surfactants.•TEM images revealed the formation of different shapes like spherical, rice and rod of NdVO4.•The detailed growth mechanism was discussed.•The grain size dependent electrical properties were elaborated.•The paramagnetic behavior of NdVO4 inferred from VSM and magnetic susceptibility studies. NdVO4 nanoparticles are successfully synthesized by efficient sonochemical method using two different structural directing agents like CTAB and P123. The phase formation and functional group analysis are carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier transform infra red (FT-IR) spectra, respectively. Using Scherrer equation the calculated grain sizes are 27nm, 24nm and 20nm corresponding to NdVO4 synthesized by without surfactant, with CTAB and P123, respectively. The TEM images revealed that the shape of NdVO4 particles is rice-like and rod shaped particles while using CTAB and P123 as surfactants. The growth mechanism of NdVO4 nanoparticles is elucidated with the aid of TEM analysis. From electrical analysis, the conductivity of NdVO4 nanoparticles synthesized without surfactant showed a higher conductivity of 5.5703×10−6Scm−1. The conductivity of the material depends on grain size and increased with increase in grain size due to the grain size effect. The magnetic measurements indicated the paramagnetic behavior of NdVO4 nanoparticles.