Studies on the spectral, morphological and magnetic properties of PCz-PPy copolymer encapsulated BaFe2O4 nanohybrids

Spinel structures have been widely explored due to widespread applications in anti-bacterial coatings, memory devices, photocatalysts, high frequency devices, gas sensors and electromagnetic absorbing materials. In the present study, barium ferrite spinel (BaFe2O4) was synthesized through sol-gel method and its nanohybrids with copolymers of carbazole and pyrrole were successfully synthesized via mechano-chemical mixing. The spectral, thermal, morphological and magnetic properties of the synthesized nano-magnetic materials were analyzed via thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transforms infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV/Vis-DRS), X-ray powder diffraction method (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. IR studies confirmed the formation of BaFe2O4/poly(Cz-co-Py) nanohybrids, while the loading of copolymer in BaFe2O4 was found to be 20%, 30% and 40% respectively as confirmed by TGA study. The XRD profiles revealed the semi-crystalline nature of the nanohybrids with average crystalline size ranging between 13.90 and 33.47 nm which was calculated by Williamson Hall method. The TEM studies showed that the copolymers were deposited on the surface of BaFe2O4 nanoparticles. The nanohybrids revealed bandgap values of 2.06 eV, 1.95 eV, 1.80 eV and 1.65 eV for BaFe2O4, BaFe2O4/(PCz-PPy)-80/20, BaFe2O4/(PCz-PPy)-70/30 and BaFe2O4/(PCz-PPy)-60/40, respectively. The nanomaterials showed potential to be used as visible light active photocatalysts.