Optical and structural properties of Mn doped CaSO4 powders synthesized by sol-gel process

Calcium sulfate (CaSO4) powders doped with different amounts of manganese (Mn2+) ions were synthesized by sol-gel process. The Mn concentration was changed from 0 to 5%. Here we attempted to fabricate Mn doped CaSO4 samples and characterized them for their optical and structural properties. The Ultraviolet-Visible analysis (UV-Vis), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been used to characterize the optical properties, phase evolution and crystallinity of the obtained samples. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that CaSO4 powders obtained were crystallized. The crystallites sizes of the obtained CaSO4 powders were found to be from 321.3 to 417.7 Å. The transmittance has decreased from 67 to 42% and the band gap of pure CaSO4 has been found to 3.94 eV and it is shifted to 3.71 eV for 5% Mn doped CaSO4. The results obtained in this study were discussed comparatively with those cited in the literature.