Structural, optical and magnetic properties of Cu doped CeO2 nano powders synthesized by solid state reaction

Abstract

In this research work, the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of Ce _1−x Cu _x O nanoparticles have been reported. Solid state reaction technique was employed to synthesize the nanoparticle samples. The synthesized materials were analysed structural properties from x-ray diffraction (XRD) observed that the crystallite size increased from16.9 nm to 40.43 nm and the lattice constant increased with increase of Cu doping concentration, and the structural properties after doping confirm the absence of other phase and synthesized samples had a cubic structure. Using SEM and EDAX, the nanoparticles surface morphology and elemental composition in investigated. The nanoparticles have a spherical shape and approximately the expected stoichiometric ratio. The optical band gap of copper doped cerium oxide nanoparticles is calculated and found the band gap decreased with increased dopant concentration. Ce _1−x Cu _x O nanoparticles using photoluminescence (PL) analysis at excitation wavelengths of 350 nm revealed emissions of the violet, blue, green, and red regions within the range of 350–700 nm. Vibrating sample magnetometer was found that the samples were room temperature ferromagnetic in nature and strength of magnetic moment increased with increase of doping concentration.

Keywords

• copper
• cerium oxide
• solid state reaction
• XRD
• SEM
• UV-vis NIR spectrometer