Facile Chemical Synthesis of Cadmium and Neodymium doped Copper Chromite by Sol gel Method

Abstract

Using a simple and inexpensive sol-gel synthesis technique, Nd and Cd doped copper chromite spinel nanoparticles (MxCu1-xCr2O4) with x=0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 were investigated. The crystal structure, elemental composition, nanoparticles nature, and bandgap of the synthesized nanoparticles were determined using XRD, EDS, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, and Photoluminescence. As prepared calcined at 750°C for four hours, resulting in an increase in average grain size from 37nm to 41nm, as demonstrated by XRD results. XRD tells us about the crystal size and dislocation density of samples. The value of 2???? for the XRD patterns is ranging from 25 to 55 . The band gap is calculated from the PL spectra and is 4.96 eV for the parent compound. When we doped elements with different concentrations in parent compound, the value of band gap decreases to 2.43 eV for Neodymium and 2.42eV for Cadmium. Similarly, SEM results show that the structure of pure copper chromites is tetragonal, and that after doping with other compounds, the structure will change according to the characteristics of Nano particles. In the PL spectra, four peaks are obtained: one at 347nm, one at 380nm, one at 500nm, and one at 600nm.EDS demonstrated that Cadmium and Neodymium was successfully doped in copper chromite and completely merged