Structural and magnetic studies of monophasic maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) magnetic nanocrystallites (MNCs) synthesized by the co-precipitation chemical route are reported in this paper. For the synthesis, a starting precursor of magnetite (Fe3O4) in basic medium was oxidized at room temperature by adjusting the pH = 3.5 at 80˚C in an acidic medium without surfactants. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows widened peaks indicating nanometric size and Rietveld Refinement confirms only one single-phase assigned to γ-Fe2O3 MNCs. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM) demonstrates the formation of nanoparticles with diameter around D ≈ 6.8 ± 0.1 nm which is in good agreement with Rietveld Refinement (6.4 ± 1 nm). A selected area electron diffraction pattern was carried out to complement the study of the crystalline structure of the γ-Fe2O3 MNCs. M(H) measurements taken at different temperatures show almost zero coercivity and remanence indicating superparamagnetic domain and high magnetic saturation.

The sustainable synthesis of metal oxide materials provides an ecofriendly and more exciting approach in the domain of a clean environment. Besides, plant extracts to synthesize nanoparticles have been considered one of the more superior ecofriendly methods. This paper describes the biosynthetic preparation route of three different sizes of tetragonal structure SnO 2 nanoparticles (SNPs) from the agro-waste cotton boll peel aqueous extract at 200, 500, and 800 °C for 3 h and represents a low-cost and alternative preparation method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry, ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Surface area and porosity size distribution were identified by nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis. The photocatalytic properties of the SNP samples were studied against methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO), and the degradation was evaluated with three different size nanomaterials of 3.97, 8.48, and 13.43 nm. Photocatalytic activities were carried out under a multilamp (125 W Hg lamps) photoreactor. The smallest size sample exhibited the highest MB degradation efficiency within 30 min than the most significant size sample, which lasted 80 min. Similarly, in the case of MO, the smallest sample showed a more superior degradation efficiency with a shorter period (40 min) than the large-size samples (100 min). Therefore, our studies suggested that the developed SNP nanomaterials could be potential, promising photocatalysts against the degradation of industrial effluents.

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In this work we report the thermal oxidation of amorphous germanium (a-Ge) thin films (140 nm thickness) in air. Following fabrication by conventional thermal evaporation on SiO 2 substrates, the samples were annealed in air at different temperatures ranging from 300 to 1000 °C. By means of x-ray diffraction, x-ray reflectivity, synchrotron grazing-incidence wide-angle x-ray scattering and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis it is found that the a-Ge films abruptly crystallize at 475 °C, while simultaneously increasing the thickness of the oxide (GeO 2 ) in a layer by layer fashion. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy reveals that the oxidation state of the Ge atoms in the GeO 2 layer is 4 + . However, a reaction at the GeO 2 /Ge interface occurs between 500 and 550 °C reducing the oxide layer to GeO x (x<2) and containing Ge 2+ and Ge + . The thickness of the oxide layer grows with the annealing temperature following an Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of 0.82±0.09 eV up to 500 °C. Remarkably, we observed simultaneous enhancement of the oxidation and crystallization of the a-Ge in the temperature interval 450 °C-500 °C, in which the oxidation rate reaches a maximum of around 0.8 nm °C−1 at around 500 °C.

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