Synthesis and Characterization of Ferrite and rGO doped Ferrite nanoparticles for Xray gamma ray shielding display and antimicrobial properties

Abstract

A series of nanoferrites such as ZnFe2O4 (ZFO), BaFe2 O4(BFO), NiFe2 O4(NFO), MgFe2 O4(MFO), MnFe2 O4(MnFO), CuFe2 O4(CuFO) and CoFe2 O4(CoFO) as well as mixture of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with all these nanoferrites were synthesized by solution combustion method using Urea/Neem leaves extract/Big thyme leaves extract/Spinach leaves extract as fuel / reducing agent followed by calcination. The synthesized nanoferrites are characterized with different techniqus. Powder X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the spinel cubic structure with space group Fd3m for ZFO, NFO, MFO, MnFO, CuFO,CoFO NPs and rGO/ZFO, rGO/NFO, rGO/MFO, rGO/MnFO, rGO/CuFO and rGO/CoFO nanocomposites (NCs). Whereas, PXRD confirm the Orthorhombic Spinel crystal structure for BFO nanoparticles (NPs) and rGO/BFO NCs.The surface morphological analysis performed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed the particles are slightly agglomerated with voids and pores for BFO, NFO and MFO NPs,modest agglomeration for ZFO, CuFO and CoFO NPs and highly agglomerated for MnFO NPs. However, irregular shaped NPs on the rGO sheet is observed in NCs. EDAX images shows the purity of all the samples and also confirms the presence the presence of O, Fe, corresponding metal ions in nanoferrites and carbon in nanocomposites. FTIR spectra recorded within the range 4000 - 400 cmand#8722;1 gives the stretching and bending vibrational modes of different functional groups present in the series of nanoferrites and NCs studied. The UV-Visible absorption spectra were recorded within the range 200-800 nm and also to found direct energy band gap by using Wood-tauc s relation for the series of nanoferrites and NCs. Further Photoluminescence (PL) emission and excitation analysis were perfomed for the series of nanoferrites and their corresponding NCs.