Systematic analysis of CuO and Co doped CuO nanoparticles and the impact of dopant on magnetic and optical properties

Abstract

The pure and Co doped CuO nanoparticles were synthesized by wet chemical method at different molar ratios. The crystallinity of CuO and Co doped CuO nanoparticles were studied by X Ray Diffraction analysis. The cubic structure of the synthesized nanoparticles was identified to be face centered cubic (f c c) and the average grain size of pure and Co doped CuO nanoparticles was calculated using Debye Scherrer formula. The particle size of the as synthesized nanoparticles was verified using Field Emission SEM. The magnetic influence of Co on CuO nanoparticles was analysed using VSM measurements and the result was compared with CuO nanoparticles. It was noted that the magnetisation value (Ms) of Co doped CuO (Ms=0.07009 emu/g) was higher when compared with pure CuO (Ms=0.0149 emu/g) nanoparticles. The optical activity of the sample was studied under UV-DRS. The band gap energy was calculated using Kubelka-Munk function and the result indicated that CuO (Eg=2.78 eV) has better optical activity than Co doped CuO (Eg=2.98 eV) nanoparticles.