Effect of SnO2 coating on the magnetic properties of nanocrystalline CuFe2O4

Nanocrystalline CuFe₂O₄ and CuFe₂O₄/xSnO₂ nanocomposites (x=0, 1, 5 wt%) have been successfully synthesized by one-pot reaction of urea-nitrate combustion method. The transmission electron microscope study reveals that the particle size of the as synthesized CuFe₂O₄ and CuFe₂O₄/5 wt%SnO₂ are 10 and 20 nm, respectively. The SnO₂ coating on the nanocrystalline CuFe₂O₄ was confirmed from HRTEM studies. The resultant products were sintered at 1100 °C and characterized by XRD and SQUID for compound formation and magnetic studies, respectively. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows the well-defined sharp peak that confirms the phase pure compound formation of tetragonal CuFe₂O₄. The zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetization was performed using SQUID magnetometer from 2 to 350 K and the magnetic hysteresis measurement was carried out to study the magnetic properties of nanocomposites.     

Fabrication of birefringent anisotropic model materials

Widely different techniques have been employed in the fabrication of transparent, birefringent, anisotropic model materials. Some of the techniques reported in the technical literature are briefly reviewed. A simple method of fabricating large plates of arbitrary layup is described.     

A class of zero-birefrngent polymers

A class of photoelastically insensitive materials consisting of a blend of rigid and flexible polyesters is described. The mechanical and optical response of these polymers is viscoelastic in character. For a wide range of the compositions, the birefringence changes from positive to negative under constant load or constant displacement. The influence of composition, time under load, and principal stress difference on the birefringence is studied. Isochromatic-fringe development in a diametrally loaded disk shows that a major region of the stressed body becomes optically insensitive after a reasonable period of time under load and remains insensitive for a time sufficiently large for associated photoelastic operations. A typical operating-time band is presented during which the optical response of a model characterized by the fringe order per unit thickness is reasonably small. It appears that this class of photoelastically insensitive materials can be employed to produce composite models with glass-fiber reinforcements. Compared to other zero-birefringent polymers, the present material has the advantage of easier processing (casting and curing), improved adhesion to glass fibers and closer matching of the refractive index with that of glass.     

High visible light-driven photocatalytic activity of large surface area Cu doped SnO<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanorods synthesized by novel one-step microwave irradiation method

The paper investigates the structural, optical and photocatalytic activity of large surface area single crystalline copper (Cu) doped SnO₂ nanorods (NRs) synthesized by a novel one-step microwave irradiation method. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms that both pure and Cu doped SnO₂ are tetragonal rutile type structure (space group P42/mnm) formed during the microwave process within 10 min without any post annealing treatment. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals that the as synthesized Cu doped SnO₂ samples exhibited rod-like shape and the length was less than 80 nm and diameter was about few nanometers. Typical selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern indicates that, the growth direction of Cu–SnO₂ nanorod is along [110] direction. The variety of phonon interaction in the pure and Cu doped SnO₂ is observed by Raman spectroscopy. Electron paramagnetic resonance and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirms that the presence of copper and tin as Cu²⁺ and Sn⁴⁺ in state, respectively. The photocatalytic activity was monitored via the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) dyes and the Cu–SnO₂ showed better photocatalytic activity than that of pure SnO₂. This could be attributed to the effective electron–hole separation by surface modification.