Structural, optical and mössbauer study of Ba1 − xCuxFe12O19 (0.5 ≤ x) nano hexaferrites

Abstract

In this study, a novel Ba1−xCuxFe12O19 (0.5 ≤ x) nano-hexaferrites were prepared by a simple and cost-effective sol–gel auto-combustion method using barium nitrates, iron nitrate, copper (II) acetate monohydrate and citric acid, and its structural, optical properties and hyperfine interactions were reported. Structural properties were analyzed through XRD (X-ray diffraction), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and TEM (Transmission electron microscopy), while percent diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and Mössbauer spectrometer were used for analyzing the optical and magnetic properties of the resultant products. The observed Mössbauer studies proved the ferromagnetic nature of nanoparticles (NPs) samples. The crystallite size (XRD) varies in a range of (23.30–35.12) nm. The direct optical energy band gap (E g ) of all samples were calculated by Tauc plots where the E g values are found in a small range of 1.97–2.15 eV. The experimental evidences signify the promising use of newly prepared nano-hexaferrites in the development of materials in various industrial devices and far better than the conventional available hexaferrites materials.