Mild Synthesis of Fe₂O₃/CdS Nanoparticles and Their Magnetic and Luminescense Studies

ABSTRACT

Colloidal nanocrystal heterostructures consisting of two or more inorganic phases provide novel approaches in developing multifunctional building block materials. Simultaneously achievable magnetically directed motion and fluorescence imaging with heterostructural materials may find use in biomedical applications. Fe₂O₃/CdS was synthesized through an aqueous route at ambient temperature. The heterostructure of nanocrystals were obtained by semiconductor materials on magnetic nanoparticles. The crystal structure and crystallinity of materials were first identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman scattering measurements. The XRD showed Bragg's reflections related to Fe₂O₃ and CdS. The as-synthesized hierarchical nanostructure exhibited a weak ferromagnetic character compared to pure ferromagnetic materials due to their low coercivity. A sharp peak of photoluminescence spectra was observed due to surface trap–induced emissions. The optical and magnetic properties of Fe₂O₃/CdS nanostructures suggest that such nanostructured materials may be useful in optoelectronic and magnetic devices.

KEYWORDS:

• heterostructures
• Fe₂O₃/CdS nanoparticles
• magnetoluminescence
• optoelectronics
• magnetic devices

Acknowledgments

We thank the Vice-Chancellor of DIAT, Pune, and Alagappa University for support and DST, government of India, for financial support through grant no. SR/S1/PC-39/2010. We are thankful to C. V. V. V. Satyanarayana of NCL, Pune, and Dr. Shaibal Banerjee of DIAT for their constant support. P.K.K. thanks Shreenu Bhanoth for assistance during manuscript preparation. S.V. and V.R. dedicate this article to Varun.