Two Step Synthesis of ZnO and ZnO@Fe3S4 Nanocomposite and its Dielectric Studies

Abstract

A novel nanocomposite ZnO@(Fe3S4) x (x=0.6.0.8,1,1.2 and 1.4) was synthesized by using facile two step chemical route. ZnO Nano powder was synthesized through polyol method, using ZnCl2.6H2O as a zinc precursor and other different surfactants NaCl, CTAB (N–Cetyl–N,N,N,trimethyl ammonium bromide) and glycine and ethylene glycol as solvent. Fe3S4 nanosheets were synthesized using FeCl3.6H2O and Sulphur (powder) as iron and Sulphur precursor and Ethylenediamine as a solvent. Both products were then transferred to autoclave for 24 hours at kept at 180ᵒC. The product was than filtered washed and calcined at 240ᵒC. The Structural properties of synthesized composite were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infra-red microscopy (FTIR) was used to identified the respective bonds while the band gaps and UV absorption were determined by UV-DRS. From XRD we obtain the crystallite size which increases with increasing Fe3S4 content but overall, less than pure ZnO. SEM results show that the flower morphology of pure ZnO UV-DRS results shows that with increase with Fe3S4 content the band gap of the composite material decreased from 3.35 to 3.06 eV. The dielectric study shows that the dielectric constant of the composite material as compared to the pure ZnO decreases while the dielectric loss in composite material is very low as compared to pure ZnO which has high dielectric loss which means the lower dielectric loss the more effective our composite dielectric material.