Study of physical and magnetic properties of Mg:Co3O4 spinels using L-Arginine as fuel

Abstract

Magnesium doped cobalt oxide nanoparticles were synthesized via microwave assisted combustion method (MACM). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of pure Co3O4 and Mg2+ doped Co3O4(x = 0.1 and 0.3) confirmed the cubic spinel structure and without any additional impurity peaks. However, doping Mg2+ concentration, x = 0.3 and 0.5 sample was occur a new hexagonal phase, while the average crystallite size of the cubic spinel structure in the range from 48.5 nm to 15.5 nm. The FT-IR bands at 661 and 573 cm−1 are attributed to the Co–Ostretching mode of cubic spinel Co3O4 structure. The band gap calculated using Kubelka–Munk (K–M) technique and increasedband gap values withthe increase in Mg2+ content (1.87–3.60 eV), due to the causes of sub-bands in the energy band gap. The morphological study revealed the prepared samples exhibited intragranular pores and merged grains with discrete grain boundaries.Magnetization analysis revealed the appearance of para-/superpara- magnetic behavior at ±15KOe.