Paramagnetism and super paramagnetism of nanocrystalline titanium dioxide powders.

• Mn-doped nanosized titanium dioxide powders were synthesized by a sol–gel method. • Mn doping leads to the predominance of the paramagnetic contribution to the magnetization over the diamagnetic contribution and a small increase in the number of the ferromagnetic clusters. • The linear part along with the diamagnetic contribution typical for metal oxides is due to the contribution of two types of paramagnetic centers. • These regions do not interact magnetically, and the powder as a whole exhibits superparamagnetic behavior. Studies of magnetization of undoped and Mn-doped nanosized titanium dioxide powders showed that its dependence on the magnetic field can be approximated by the function that is a linear combination of two Langevin functions with different parameters. The linear part along with the diamagnetic contribution typical for metal oxides is due to the contribution of two types of paramagnetic centers. The first one is present in both undoped and doped powders. As follows from the published models, the centers are complex lattice defects Ti+3 ions + O− vacancies. The second is the vast majority of the manganese ions (and related oxide vacancies) in the doped powders that are uniformly distributed over all nanoparticles. The nonlinear part, even present in the undoped samples, is caused by the contribution of a small number of regions with a high magnetic moment (ferromagnetic clusters). These regions do not interact magnetically, and the powder as a whole exhibits superparamagnetic behavior. According to our estimates, the introduction of Mn into the TiO 2 lattice mainly leads to the predominance of the paramagnetic contribution to the magnetization over the diamagnetic contribution characteristic of the TiO 2 lattice and a small increase in the number of the ferromagnetic clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]