Nanofabrication of (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x and the impact of precursor concentrations on nanoparticles conduct

• Main Authors: Al-Hada, Naif Mohammed, Al-Ghaili, Abbas M., Kasim, Hairoladenan, Saleh, Muneer Aziz, Baqiah, Hussein, Liu, Jian, Wang, Jihua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Editora Ltda 2021
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/97875/1/MuneerAzizSaleh2021_NanofabricationofCr2O3xNiO1xAndTheImpactOfPrecursorConcentrations.pdf; http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/97875/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.01.007

This study aims to synthesize the (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x nanoparticles at lower and higher precursor values using the calcination method. There is a lack in regard to investigating the lower and higher precursor values on structural and optical properties of the (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x nanoparticles. To synthesize the (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x nanoparticles, Cr (III) acetate hydrate and Ni (II) acetate tetrahydrate were reacted with poly (vinyl alcohol). Several techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), have been employed to characterize the synthesized sample. The XRD pattern analysis indicated that, following calcination, nanoparticle formation occurred, indicating hexagonal crystalline structures (HCP) and face-centred cubic (FCC) of (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x nanoparticles. FT-IR verified the existence of Ni-O and Cr-O as the original compounds of ready (Cr2O3)x (NiO)1-x nanoparticle samples. In term of average particle size, this varied from 5 to 16 nm when the precursor concentration rised from x = 0.20 to x = 0.80, as reflected in the TEM results. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to measure the valence state and surface composition of the prepared product nanoparticles. To identify the optical band gap using the Kubelka-Munk equation, diffuse UV-visible reflectance spectra were employed, which revealed that the energy band gap fell with a rise in the value of x. In addition, photoluminescence (PL) spectra indicated that the photoluminescence intensity was related to a directly proportional way to particle size. Hence, the results can be employed with a broad range of applications in solar cell energy applications at higher x values and antibacterial activity at lower x values.