Electrical conductance, dielectric properties and photodegradation ability of aluminum based Heterogeneous nanoparticles

Abstract

Two novel heterogeneous nanoparticles (NPs) composed of Al–Co and Al–Zn were successfully synthesized by co-precipitation route. The as prepared samples were investigated through XRD, TGA, DRS, FTIR, XPS, BET, and SEM. XRD patterns showed well crystallinity and phase purity for the synthesized samples. SEM micrographs presented small size, irregular grains with some agglomeration for both the NPs. Al–Co and Al–Zn displayed an effective band gap ~2.75, 2.50eV and BET surface area ~166.52 m2/g, 27.22 m2/g respectively. The catalytic yield (%) recorded for both the NPs against widely used toxic industrial dyes such as methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO), crystal violet (CV), and acridine orange (AO) was much higher (>90%), whereas for rhodamine B (RB) it was only 47 and 65% with Al–Co and Al–Zn respectively. The frequency and temperature related conductance, dielectric behaviour and tangent loss was also analyzed for the fabricated NPs. Polarized induction and Koop's model of dielectrics were followed by both the samples. Extensive characterization and investigation, categorized the prepared NPs as promising candidates in photocatalytic elimination of organic pollutants from industrial effluents as well as best suited for opto and microelectronics.