Effect of Copper Doping on the Structural, Morphological and Optical Properties of Zinc Ferrite Nanoparticles

Abstract

The Cu_xZn_1-xFe₂O₄ (x= 0, 0.05, 0.1) nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation method. For preparation iron chloride FeCl₃.6H₂O, zinc chloride ZnCl₂ and copper chloride CuCl₂.2H₂O were used. The synthesized copper doped ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles were characterized by techniques such as XRD, High-resolution SEM, FT-IR spectroscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. The single phase cubic spinal structure of (Cu_xZn_1-xFe₂O₄ x= 0, 0.05, 0.1) nanoparticles was revealed by XRD. The results of XRD confirmed the crystallite size and lattice parameter determined as 18nm - 10nm and 8.4880Å- 8.4135 Å respectively. The SEM analysis described spherical morphology of samples. FTIR spectroscopy was done for the investigation of functional group analysis and vibrational characteristics. The presence of metal oxygen bond was detected by FTIR analysis. The UV-Visible spectroscopy was performed to find the band gap of all the samples. The  value of band gap energy as calculated by using Tuac plot method was found to be 2.eV to 2.7eV.The impact of cation distribution can effectively tuned and has potential application in photocatalysis, sensing optoelectronic devices and electromagnetic technologies of  various emerging fields of nanomaterials.