Opto-structural and magnetic properties of fluorine doped CuO nanoparticles: An experimental study

Pristine and p-block element, Fluorine (F) doped CuO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by implementing the modified sol-gel method. The structural, elemental, and phase characteristics of the nanoparticles were examined using XRD and XPS analysis. Structural analysis revealed the lowering of crystallinity and crystallite size due to F doping owing to induced lattice distortion. Reduction of phase stability of CuO giving rise to the emergence of Cu2O phase was also observed. Fused irregularly shaped particles and gradual reduction of particle size for doping were detected from the morphological analysis. Emission peak intensity in photoluminescence study sheds light on the impact of F doping on the concentration of defects like oxygen vacancy. DRS spectra attained from UV-visible spectroscopy utilized for measuring the optical band gaps suggested a decrease in optical band gap with doping which attributes to the generated intra-band defect states. Room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) with slight paramagnetic (PM) contribution was evident in both pure and F-doped CuO NPs. The experimental magnetization value and the BMP model were perfectly compatible, indicating that FM emerged from polaron interactions. The intriguing opto-structural and magnetic properties of F-doped CuO NPs make them a promising contender for use in solar cells, magnetic storage devices, magnetic sensors, photocatalytic, photonics, spintronics, etc. applications.