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Cooperative effects due to Zn–Sn replacement by Co-ions on the optical and magnetic properties of (ZnSn)1- xCoxO nanocomposites

Research Authors
A. Sedky; N. Afify; Ahmed Abbas; A. G Abd-Elrahim
Research Abstract

In the present study, the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of (ZnSn)1-xCoxO nanocomposites (NCs) were reported. The transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of ZnSnO NCs showed mixed nanorods and nanosheets morphologies that completely transformed to mostly nanocubes with Co-ions incorporation. The optical band gap (Eg) of nanostructured ZnO, SnO, and ZnSnO NCs was 3.2, 4.5, and 3.9 eV, respectively. The estimated Eg value of all (ZnSn)1-xCoxO NCs was lower than the undoped ZnSnO NCs. The nanostructured ZnO revealed poor room-temperature ferromagnetic (RTFM) behavior whereas nanostructured SnO exhibited paramagnetic behavior at low magnetic field strength followed by diamagnetic behavior at high magnetic field strength. The (ZnSn)1-xCoxO NCs exhibited strong improvement in the RTFM, where the hybrid (ZnSn)60Co40O NCs exhibited the highest saturation magnetization (Ms) of 2 emu·g−1. This value was 5-times higher than the undoped ZnSnO NCs and 2-orders of magnitude higher than the pure ZnO phase. However, with increasing Co-content up to 50 %, the Ms was reduced to 1.16 emu·g−1 demonstrating the corruption of RTFM. The present study indicated the importance of composition utilization for tuning physical properties of (ZnSn)1-xCoxO NCs and improving the performance of these NCs in optoelectronic and spintronics applications.

Research Date
Research Department
Research Journal
Materials Chemistry and Physics
Research Publisher
Elsevier
Research Rank
International Journal
Research Vol
313
Research Website
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2023.128776
Research Year
2024
Research Pages
128776