Influence of Mn2+ Substitution on the Optical Properties of Novel CaLi2O2 Nanoparticles Synthesized by Sol-gel Method

Abstract

A novel calcium lithium composite oxide CaLi2O2 nanoparticle has been successfully synthesized by using sol-gel method. The objective of the present work is to examine the change of optical properties with the change of Mn 2+ ion concentration in CaLi2O2 nanoparticles. The novelty of this study is the synthesis of Mn-doped CaLi2O2 nanoparticles. In order to investigate their physical properties the resulting samples in powder form were thermally treated at 300 °C and then characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The XRD patterns show that the crystalline structure has been changed with the change of Mn 2+ ion concentration in CaLi2O2 lattice. The incorporation of manganese atoms into CaLi2O2 has been confirmed by the FT-IR spectroscopy. This may be explained by the apparition of some absorption bands in the wavenumber range from 584 to 601 cm -1 . The particles size decreases from 463 Ǻ to 117 Ǻ. The band gap values were tuned from 3.769 eV to 3.794 eV and discussed based on the quantum confinement effect.