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In the present study Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and Rare Earth (RE) ion Cerium (Ce) doped ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscope (TEM), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), UV-visible spectroscopy and ferromagnetism behavior at room temperature. The XRD and EDX analysis revealed that Ce doped ZnO pattern matched with the ZnO pattern i.e. they exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure and Ce ions were successfully incorporated into the ZnO nanoparticles. TEM images illustrated the average diameter of synthesized nanoparticles. The average diameter of ZnO and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles was around 20 nm. PL measurements revealed that ZnO nanoparticles and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles had an UV emission and a green emission while the Ce ions doping induced a red shift in the UV emission with broadening in the green emission. Direct type of transition of band gaps was confirmed by transmission spectra occurring at 3.5 and 3.2 eV respectively for ZnO nanoparticles and Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles i.e. decrease of band gap energy with doping of Ce ions in ZnO nanoparticles. The magnetization study on the Ce doped ZnO nanoparticles exposed outstanding ferromagnetism property at room temperature.

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The multifunctional double network (DN) soft hydrogels reported here are highly swellable and stretchable pH‐responsive smart hydrogel materials with sufficient strength and self‐healing properties. Such multifunctional hydrogels are achieved using double crosslinking structures with multiple physical and chemical crosslinks. They consist of a copolymer network of acrylamide (AM) and sodium acrylate (Na‐AA) and other reversible network of poly(vinyl alcohol)–borax complex. They were characterized by Fourier transform IR analysis and studied for their hydrogen bonding and ionic interaction. The degree of equilibrium swelling was observed to be as high as 5959% (at pH 7.0) for a hydrogel with AM/Na‐AA = 25/75 wt% in the network (GS‐6 sample). The highest degree of swelling was observed to be 6494% at pH 8.5. The maximum tensile strength was measured to be 1670, 580 and 130 kPa for a DN hydrogel (GS‐2 sample: AM/Na‐AA =75/25 wt% with 20, 40 and 60 wt% water content, respectively). The self‐healing efficiency was estimated to be 69% for such a hydrogel. These multifunctional DN hydrogels with amalgamation of many functional properties are unique in hydrogel materials and such materials may find applications in sensors, actuators, smart windows and biomedical applications. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry