Effect of Cr3+ on growth, thermal, photoluminescence and electrical properties of potassium dihydrogen citrate single crystal

Potassium Dihydrogen Citrate (KDC) is well recognized food additive and hence it is interesting to investigate the influence of toxic metal doping on its properties. The pure and 0.2 mol% Cr3+ doped KDC crystals are grown using solvent evaporation technique at room temperature. The grown crystals exhibits needle shape morphology. The EDAX analysis confirms the presence of chromium along with the constituent elements of KDC crystal. The powder XRD indicates the triclinic symmetry of the grown crystals. The FT-IR spectroscopic study indicates the presence of various functional groups in the pure and doped crystals. The Cr3+ improves the thermal stability of KDC crystal. The influence of Cr3+ doping is clearly shown by large value of dielectric constant of doped KDC crystals compared to pure KDC. The variation of dielectric constant, dielectric loss and A.C. conductivity with frequency are studied. The Photoluminescence study confirms the defect in hydrogen bonding network of KDC crystal due to doping of Cr3+.