Effect of Cu²⁺ ions on structural, morphological, optical and magnetic behaviors of ZnAl₂O₄ spinel

Abstract

Zn 1−x Cu x Al 2 O 4 nanoparticles were prepared by microwave combustion technique with metal nitrates as precursor materials. Powder x-ray diffraction studies confirm the formation of single phase of spinel pure and copper doped zinc aluminates. HR-SEM images reveal the agglomerated coalescence morphology with pores. Elemental analysis (EDX) confirm the presence of Zn, Cu, Fe and O. UV-Visible Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is used to find the optical bandgap and it is found to decreases from 5.45 eV to 3.57 eV. IR spectra show three major peaks which confirm the phase formation of Zn 1−x Cu x Al 2 O 4 nano aluminates with spinel structure. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements reveal the super paramagnetic nature of pure and copper doped zinc alumintes. The obtain results are confirmed that present pure and copper doped ZnAl 2 O 4 particles at nanoscale are to be potential candidate for catalytic, sensor and optoelectronic device applications.

Optical and dielectric properties of silver-substituted ZnAl2O4 spinels synthesized using a sol-gel auto-combustion method

“…Knowing that the pure and doped ZnAl 2 O 4 compound has a direct transition, the value of the exponent n is 2, as in the literature. [30][31][32][33] Fig. 4 displays the plot of (F(R)hn) 2 versus photon energy (hn) for the samples Ag…”

Doping of Semiconductors at Nanoscale with Microwave Heating (Overview)

“…This report claimed that the bandgap modification of ZnO via Fe doping is estimated from the Tauc plot without considering the influence of size. Similarly, many spinel structured metal oxides were also doped with different transition metal ions via microwave heating based synthesis technique with tunable structural, morphological, optical, vibrational, and magnetic properties and different potential applications like phosphor-based forensic testing and many more [51][52][53][54]. Interestingly, Er 3+ doped α-Fe 2 O 3 and Fe doped TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized successfully with the help of microwave heating to study their crystal structure and optical properties [55,56].…”

Influence of Sr2+ ion substitution on structural, morphological, optical, thermal, and magnetic behavior of MgFe2O4 cubic spinel

“…The capability to control the size of the particles of nano ferrites during synthesis, narrow size, and uniform size distribution is preferred for various applications such as biomedical, data storage, and drug delivery. [ 9–11 ]…”