Optimal Selection Role of Chelating Agents in the Synthesis of YFeO3 Nanomaterials Prepared via Sol-gel Technique

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the selection of the optimal composition of YFeO3 polycrystalline materials which were prepared by using the sol-gel technique in the presence of different chelating agents, such as glycine, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), urea and starch. The chelating agents used in the synthesis of YFeO3 were selected based on the good to excellent physical and magnetic properties that they demonstrated. The structural phase purity of YFeO3 formed with different chelating agents was examined with the help of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The synthesized compounds exhibited orthorhombic structure and Pnma space group, which was further confirmed with the help of Rietveld refinement. The surface morphology of these compounds with different chelating agents showed the particles with different sizes within the range of 750 nm to 940 nm. The surface areas of YFO materials (Glycine, Urea, and Starch) were found to be almost similar within a close range of 4.34 m2 g−1. But in the case of YFO (EDTA) material, a value of 7.34 m2 g−1 was noticed, which is quite higher as compared to the other chelating agents used in this study. The desired property of magnetization (1.80 emu g−1) and coercive field (54.83 Oe) for the YFO (EDTA) material showed decent values as compared with glycine, urea, and starch as chelating agents for YFO. The optical band gap for the synthesized compounds was estimated with the help of a Tauc plot considering the indirect band gap, which is comparable with the existing values as mentioned in the standard reports. The optical band gap was found to be in the range of 2 eV. It was observed that YFO (EDTA) material acted as a better chelating agent, which was confirmed with the help of the above results.