Investigation of optical, electrical and magnetic properties of hematite a-Fe2O3 nanoparticles via sol-gel and co-precipitation method

Hematite (a-Fe2O3) nanoparticles were synthesized using co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique was employed to structural properties of the synthesized a-Fe2O3 nanopar-ticles and SEM(scanning electron microscopy) was used to analyze the morphological structure. The crys-tallite size is determined Sample-A (33 nm) and Sample-B (29 nm) by Scherer formula, while Volume of unit cell is measured 301.8 x106 pm3 and 301.8 x106 pm3 respectively. The X-ray density is found in the Sample-A 5.27 (g/cm3) and Sample-B 5.26 (g/cm3). The optical band gap energy measured 2.4-2.6 eV, cal-culated by the Tauc plot with the optical absorption data. The electrical characteristics of the samples were examined by using two probe methods and the possible impact of temperature on the electrical properties of a-Fe2O3 was investigated. Dielectric analysis reveals an inverse relationship between the permittivity of a-Fe2O3 samples and frequency that fulfills the Maxwell Wagner Model. The magnetic parameters were observed Ms = 9.29 emu, 1.72 emu and coercivity Hc = 1404(G) as well as Hc = 1040 (G). The observed values of these factors indicate that the materials can be employed in a variety of appli-cations such as catalysis, sensors and water purification.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Hematite nanoparticles were synthesized using co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. The structural properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the morphological structure was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The crystal size and unit cell volume were determined, and the X-ray density, optical band gap energy, electrical characteristics, and magnetic parameters of the samples were investigated. The results indicate that these materials have potential applications in catalysis, sensors, and water purification.