Synthesis and spectroscopic characterization of copper zinc aluminum nanoferrite particles

•Basic unit of (Zn1−xCux)(AlxFe2−x)O4 is made up of octahedral and tetrahedral units.•EPR spectra at low Cu content is dominated by Fe(III) and higher Cu content is dominated by Cu(II) only.•SAED indicating that crystallinity increases with increase of Cu/Al composition.•Non linear optics measurements indicating that the compound is good potential material for optical limiting applications.

Copper doped zinc aluminum ferrites CuxZn1−x.(AlxFe2−x)O4 are synthesized by the solid-state reaction route and characterized by XRD, TEM, EPR and non linear optical spectroscopy techniques. The average particle size is found to be from 35 to 90 nm and the unit cell parameter “a” is calculated as from 8.39 to 8.89 Å. The cation distributions are estimated from X-ray diffraction intensities of various planes. The XRD studies have verified the quality of the synthesis of compounds and have shown the differences in the positions of the diffraction peaks due to the change in concentration of copper ions. TEM pictures clearly indicating that fundamental unit is composed of octahedral and tetrahedral blocks and joined strongly. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) of the ferrite system shows best crystallinity is obtained when Cu content is very. Some of the d-plane spacings are exactly coinciding with XRD values. EPR spectra is compositional dependent at lower Al/Cu concentration EPR spectra is due to Fe3+ and at a higher content of Al/Cu the EPR spectra is due to Cu2+. Absence of EPR spectra at room temperature indicates that the sample is perfectly ferromagnetic. EPR results at low temperature indicate that the sample is paramagnetic, and that copper is placed in the tetragonal elongation (B) site with magnetically non-equivalent ions in the unit cell having strong exchange coupling between them. This property is useful in industrial applications. Nonlinear optical properties of the samples studied using 5 ns laser pulses at 532 nm employing the open aperture z-scan technique indicate that these ferrites are potential candidates for optical limiting applications.

Graphical abstractCopper doped zinc aluminium ferrites are synthesized by the solid-state reaction route is cubic crystalline with unit cell parameter varying from 8.39 to 8.89 Å. TEM pictures clearly indicating that fundamental unit is composed of octahedral and tetrahedral blocks and joined strongly shown in (a). EPR spectra is compositional dependent at lower Al/Cu concentration EPR spectra is due to Fe3+ and at a higher content of Al/Cu the EPR spectra is due to Cu2+. Absence of EPR spectra at room temperature indicates that the sample is perfectly ferromagnetic. EPR results at low temperature indicate that the sample is paramagnetic, and that copper is placed in the tetragonal elongation (B) site with magnetically non-equivalent ions in the unit cell having strong exchange coupling between them. This is shown in (b). (a) TEM image of ferrite with x = 0.15. (b) EPR spectrum of ferrite with x = 0.75.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide