Structural and optical study of Fe ³⁺ ‐doped Al ₂ O ₃ nanocrystals prepared by new sol gel precursors

Abstract

Abstract Pure and Fe‐doped Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles ( NP s) were synthesized with different iron doping percentage of 1, 3, and 5 mol% employing sol gel technique with AlCl 3 , FeCl 3 as well as ethylene glycol ( EG ) and Polyvinylpyrrolidone ( PVP ) stabilizers as precursors. The XRD results indicated that the hexagonal structure of Fe/Al 2 O 3 nanocomposite with alpha phase was formed by the substitution of Fe 3+ ions in the alumina network. The sizes of the NP s obtained for the pure samples and doped samples at percentage dopant of 5% were 35 and 28 nm, respectively. The results of FTIR optical analysis showed the vibrational bond at the wavelength of 448 cm −1 , indicating the Al‐O band in the sample. The UV ‐ DRS analysis showed that the energy band gap for the pure NP s was 4 eV , but with increase in iron dopant up to 5%, it decreased to 3.42 eV . In addition, the results of photoluminescence ( PL ) analysis demonstrated that with increase in doping percentage, the PL intensity diminished. VSM magnetic analysis showed that with increase in iron dopant, the ferromagnetic state emerged in the NP s at saturation magnetism of 0.136 emu/g. Finally, photocatalytic experimental results demonstrated that 5% Fe‐doped Al 2 O 3 NP s effectively degrade MB approximately 53%.