STUDY OF OPTICAL AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF DOPED y-Fe203 NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles have shown immense capabilities in the fields such as biomedical applications, magnetic resonance imaging, data storage, tissue engineering, etc. The effect of doping on the properties of maghemite nanoparticles(synthesized by co-precipitation) have been studied and compared with that of undoped maghemite nanoparticles. The particle size was in the range of 5 to 10 nm, this being further confirmed by TEM analysis as well as by FESEM-EDAX analysis. The doping was restricted to 20% in both cases keeping in mind the possibility of crystal arrangement getting affected. The doping affects direct optical band-gap, range of temperature for gas-sensing, sew nsing, saturation magnetization, and coercivity of the nanoparticles. The effect of doping on these application-oriented attributes have been discussed and described through various methods of characterization.