Synthesis and characterization of Barium ferrite nano-particles for X-ray/gamma radiation shielding and display applications

Abstract

In the present communication, BaFe2O4 (BFO) nanoparticles were synthesized by solution combustion method using urea as a fuel and calcined at 500 °C for 3 h. To know the phase purity, functional group, surface morphology, structural analysis and energy band gap, the synthesized sample was characterized by using the techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV–Visible spectrophotometer. The Bragg’s reflection of PXRD confirms the formation of orthorhombic spinel crystal structure with space group Cmc21(36). In addition to orthorhombic phase, additional PXRD peaks corresponding to monoclinic phase of BFO were also observed. Wood and Tauc’s relation was used to calculate direct energy band gap and was found to be 5.2 eV. Photoluminescence studies (λex = 350 nm), CIE and CCT values revealed that the present BFO nanomaterial could meet the needs of illumination devices. In addition, X-ray/gamma ray shielding properties of BFO nanoparticles in the energy range 0.081–1.332 MeV have been measured using NaI (Tl) detector and PC based multi channel analyser (MCA). The measured shielding parameters are compared with the standard theoretical values. It is found that above 356 keV energy of gamma ray, the measured shielding parameters agrees well with the theory, whereas, slight deviation is observed below 356 keV. This deviation may be mainly attributed to the particle size of the target medium. Furthermore, an accurate theory is necessary to explain the interaction of X-ray/gamma with the nano size atoms. The present work opens new window to use this facile, economical, efficient, low temperature method to synthesize nanomaterials for X-ray/gamma ray shielding purpose as well as the display device applications.