Structural optical and magnetic properties of Fe/Pr co-doped CuO nanoparticles

Abstract

In this research, Fe/Pr co-doped CuO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by the hydrothermal method at 200 oC for 10 h. The structure and morphology of the as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Magnetic properties were measured at room temperature using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The optical properties were measured in the absorption mode using UV–vis spectrophotometer. The XRD results indicate that all as-prepared Fe/Pr co-doped CuO nanoparticles are monoclinic phase with the impurity phase of Fe2O3 and Pr2O3. SEM micrographs reveal a nanorod is observed and decrease with Pr content. The magnetic properties measurements at 27 oC reveal that Fe/Pr co-doped CuO nanopaticles exhibit a ferromagnetic behavior with the saturation magnetization (Ms) of 0.0045 emu/g for Fe/Pr ratio of 0.6/0.2. The determined optical band gaps of the Fe/Pr co-doped CuO nanorods are found to be in the range of 3.40 – 3.48 eV.