Optical and magnetic properties of Cu/SiO2 composite films prepared via γ-irradiation route

In the present radiolytic study, we report the formation of Cu+2 ions in a sol-gel SiO2 thin film via gamma-irradiation. The optical and magnetic properties of Cu/SiO2 film are discussed in relation to the mechanism of the formation of Cu+2 ions through irradiation. The color of the treated Cu/SiO2 films swinging from faint green to dark blue as the concentration of Cu(NO3)(2) solution was increased from 0.2 to 0.6 and then decreased at 1.2 mol/L. The absorption spectra of the samples revealed many identified broad absorption bands in both, UV (similar to 190-280 nm) and, in the visible region (similar to 360-530 and similar to 600-740 nm) beside a shallow broad ones in near infrared (similar to 800-880 nm). Also, there are remarkable increases in the absorption intensities accompanying with red shift for the heat-treated samples soaked in 1.2 mol/L. In order to study the state of Cu2+, and confirm the influence of the matrix, by investigating their EPR and XRD spectroscopy, respectively. Copyright (C) 2014, The Egyptian Society of Radiation Sciences and Applications. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.