Aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared on glass substrate by spray pyrolysis technique and subsequently their structural, morphological and optical properties were investigated and analyzed as a function of annealing temperature. The films were deposited at 350°C and were annealed at temperature 350, 400, 450 and 500°C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms that both deposited and annealed films are polycrystalline in nature and have hexagonal wurtzite structure. The crystalline size as well as the crystalline quality of the film was found to increase with the increase of annealing temperature to a certain point. However, the dislocation density and the compressive stress induced in as-deposited AZO films reduce with annealing temperature. SEM image reveals that the deposited film has nanorope like morphology. The average diameter of the rope and the density of the morphology increases with the increase of annealing temperature. As the annealing temperature increases from 350°C to 450°C, the average transmittance of the films increases and the band gap value decreases from 3.25 eV to 3.17 eV. In addition, obtained results also show that urbach energy, extinction coefficient, refractive index, optical conductivity has changes noticeably with annealing temperature.
Photocatalytic composite materials incorporating the photocatalysts (TiO2, ZnO) with rice husk ash (RHA) have been developed to investigate the photodegradation of real textile dye effluent. The structural characterization of the composite materials was performed using XRD (X-Ray Diffractometer). The characteristic XRD peaks together with the 2? values for both TiO2 and ZnO were in excellent agreement with the standard JCPDS d-values. The efficacy of these composites was examined through the degradation of a textile dye, collected from a local dye house. The sun light was used as the source of illumination for the preceding degradation reaction. Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 47(4), 445-448, 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjsir.v47i4.14075
Henequen fibers were cured under ultraviolet (UV) radiation with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in order to improve the mechanical properties and reduce the water absorption. A series of solutions of different HEMA concentration in methanol along with photoinitiator Irgacure 907 was prepared. The radiation dose, monomer (HEMA) concentration and soaking time were optimized with respect to grafting of monomer and mechanical properties of cured fiber. 3% HEMA, 5 min soaking time, at the ninth pass of radiation, produced higher tensile strength (190%) and elongation at break (195%), than those of the virgin fiber, as well as the highest grafting value (4.2%). For further improvement of the mechanical properties, the fibers were treated with an alkali (KOH) solution of various concentrations for 1 h before curing. 10% alkalitreated fibers showed increased properties, such as grafting (5.4%), tensile strength (300%), and elongation at break (290%) over raw fiber. The treated fiber showed lower water uptake than the untreated ones. The grafted fibers were also characterized by IR and it was observed that HEMA deposited on the fiber surface may react with the cellulose backbone of the Henequen fibers.
In the present work, pure BaTiO3, pure Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 and (1-x)BaTiO3-xNi0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 (where x = 0.15, 0.25 & 0.35) multiferroic composites were synthesized through solid-state sintering scheme. Structural, microstructural, ferroelectric, and ferromagnetic analysis was performed. Both tetragonal perovskite phase (for BaTiO3 ferroelectric phase) and cubic spinel ferrite phase (for Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 ferromagnetic phase) were simultaneously presented within each composite. The ferrite phase exhibited a smaller crystallite size compared to the ferroelectric phase. All of the composites demonstrated homogenous irregular-shaped grains. The measured average grain size for 0.85BaTiO3-0.15Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4, 0.75BaTiO3-0.25Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4, 0.65BaTiO3-0.35Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 were 364.14 nm, 378.46 nm and 351.62nm, whereas the density values were 3.04g/cm3, 3.20g/cm3 and 3.13 g/cm3 for x = 0.35, 0.25, 0.15 respectively. However, the heterogenous microstructure was observed for all of the compositions. The composites exhibited an oval-shaped lossy capacitor hysteresis loop. However, 0.75BaTiO3-0.25Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 composite showed the highest remnant polarization (11.613 μC/cm2) and coercive field value (1.526 kV/cm), ensuring its usability for switching applications. In addition, 0.75BaTiO3-0.25Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 also exhibited the maximum saturation (Ms= 1.732 emu/g) and remnant magnetization (Mr= 0.025 emu/g) among the composites. Nevertheless, all of the composites derived 'wasp-waisted' hysteresis loops due to the presence of either superparamagnetic (SPM) particles or a mixer of a single domain (SD) and superparamagnetic particles.
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