Structural, Optical and Room Temperature Magnetic Study of Mn₂O₃ Nanoparticles

Majed Sharrouf¹, Ramadan Awad^1,2*, Mohamad Roumié³, Salem Marhaba¹

¹Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beirut Arab University (BAU), Beirut, Lebanon.
²Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
³Accelerator laboratory, Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, CNRS, Beirut, Lebanon.

DOI: 10.4236/msa.2015.610087                

Abstract

In this work, Mn2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared by co-precipitation technique. The synthesized sample is characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The XRD spectrum reveals the cubic structure of Mn2O3 NPs and the lattice parameter is calculated to be 9.4232 ?. Crystallite size (D) is estimated using Debye-Scherer’s formula and is found to be 17.3 nm. A micrograph for the NPs is obtained using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The Mn2O3 nanoparticles are viewed at 7500× magnification and their shape is spherical. D is also measured using TEM and it is 19.1 nm, which is very close to the one obtained from XRD. The elemental contents of the prepared samples are determined using particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE). In addition, the oxygencontent of the sample is obtained using non Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) at 3 MeV proton beam. The sample shows high purity and the RBS technique is more accurate in determining the O-content. The presence of functional groups and the chemical bonding is confirmed by FTIR spectrum. The energy band gap (Eg) is calculated for the NPs using the UV-visible optical spectroscopy between 350 nm and 800 nm and found to be 1.24 eV. The sample shows high absorption in the visible range. The magnetization (VSM) is conducted to the sample and the saturation magnetization (Ms) is calculated as 2.642 emu/g. The hysteresis loop shows antiferromagnetic behavior. The EPR analysis is performed at room temperature for the NPs. The g-factor is calculated from the spectrum and found to be 1.985, and the magnetic field shift occurs at Bo = 350.5 mT. The intensity appeared to be high, which confirms the existence of Mn2+ ions on the surface.

Keywords

Nanoparticles, PIXE, RBS, X-Ray Diffraction, Room Temperature, Antiferromagnetic

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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