STRUCTURAL, OPTICAL, MAGNETIC AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF TRANSITION METAL IONS (Ni, Ca, and Fe) DOPED ZnO NANOPARTICLES PREPARED BY SINGLE-STEP METHOD

Abstract

Nanostructures of metal oxides are playing a vital role in determining the characteristics of the properties such as magnetic, optical and electrical properties. In this work, nanostructured ZnO based composites were prepared and their magnetic and optical properties are estimated. The as prepared composite is composed of Zn0.090(Ni0.05Ca0.05)Fe0.010O (ZnNiCaFeO)using co-precipitation method followed by sintering process. To distinguish the role of composites, bare ZnO also prepared and their properties were compared with the composite material. Both ZnNiCaFeO) exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure with the grain size of about ~52 and ~46 nm respectively. Hexagonal nanorod structured morphology and the atomic percentage of the as prepared composites were obtained from the FESEM and EDAX analysis, respectively. UV-Vis absorption spectra of the samples showed absorption peak at 296 (ZnO) and 288 nm for ZnNiCaFeO NPs. Excitation wavelength of the composite materials are also estimated from the PL studies. It was noted that composite ZnNiCaFeO exhibited ferromagnetic behavior with the significant magnetization values of 0.34914 emu/g. The reduction in the viability of all the bacteria to zero using ZnNiCaFeO nanoparticles occurred and it plays a vital role in the increased antibacterial and antioxidant activity performance. Thus, the obtained results indicate the composites can be used in soft magnetic application as well as in various optical applications.