TY - JOUR A1 - Akbar, S. A1 - Hasanain, S.K. A1 - Ivashenko, O. A1 - Dutka, M.V. A1 - Akhtar, N. A1 - De Hosson, J.Th.M. A1 - Ali, Naveed A1 - Rudolf, P. T1 - Defect ferromagnetism in SnO2:Zn2+ hierarchical nanostructures: correlation between structural, electronic and magnetic properties JF - RSC Advances N2 - We report on the ferromagnetism of Sn1-xZnxO2 (x < 0.1) hierarchical nanostructures with various morphologies synthesized by a solvothermal route. A room temperature ferromagnetic and paramagnetic response was observed for all compositions, with a maximum in ferromagnetism for x = 0.04. The ferromagnetic behaviour was found to correlate with the presence of zinc on substitutional Sn sites and with a low oxygen vacancy concentration in the samples. The morphology of the nanostructures varied with zinc concentration. The strongest ferromagnetic response was observed in nanostructures with well-formed shapes, having nanoneedles on their surfaces. These nanoneedles consist of (110) and (101) planes, which are understood to be important in stabilizing the ferromagnetic defects. At higher zinc concentration the nanostructures become eroded and agglomerated, a phenomenon accompanied with a strong decrease in their ferromagnetic response. The observed trends are explained in the light of recent computational studies that discuss the relative stability of ferromagnetic defects on various surfaces and the role of oxygen vacancies in degrading ferromagnetism via an increase in free electron concentration. KW - Ferromagnetism KW - Nanostructures KW - Magnetic properties PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-473014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ra00455f SN - 2046-2069 VL - 9 IS - 7 SP - 4082 EP - 4091 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-47301 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ali, Naveed A1 - Komal, N. A1 - Malik, Z. A1 - Chaudhary, A.J. T1 - Synthesis, characterization and properties of hierarchically assembled antimony oxyhalides nanonetworks JF - Materials research express N2 - The novel synthesis route has been developed for hierarchically structured; nanorods and nanosheets of Sb4O5Cl2 from a single precursor, with dimension range between 57–90 nm. X-ray powder diffraction analysis confirmed the monoclinic crystal symmetry in P21/c(14)with structure type Sb4O5Cl2 for both forms; the nanorods and nanosheets. Rietveld refinements and crystallite size investigations of the powder patterns revealed significant enhancement in intensity with subtle variation in the lattice parameters and crystallite size decrease in case of nanosheets in comparison to the nanorods assembly. Through scanning electron microscopy, a composition commensurate to Sb4O5Cl2 at% with averaged dimensions; dia.∼90 nm, l ∼ 2 μm for nanorods and dia.∼50–150 nm for nanosheets got corroborated. Owing to the quantum confinement a band gap widening was observed while moving from bulk to nano regime, i.e. 3.25, 3.31 and 3.34 eV, for bulk, nanosheets, and nanorods, respectively. In the case of nanosheets, the highest value of dielectric constant was observed, i.e. 87, as compared to nanorods and the bulk, i.e. 40 and 35.5, respectively. The nanosheets also showed the highest value of dielectric and tangent loss with an increase in frequency due to the least crystallite size of these nanonetworks. Nanosheets depicted the higher AC conductivity at low frequency due to the alignment of the charges but its value decreases at the higher frequency due to lack of time for charge reorientation. The hopping phenomenon was observed in all three cases with the most prominent one in bulk case at higher frequencies. KW - Nanorods KW - Nanosheets KW - Antimony oxychloride ( Sb4O5Cl2) KW - Optical properties KW - Dielectric properties PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab0da9 SN - 2053-1591 VL - 6 IS - 6 SP - 065035 PB - IOP AN - OPUS4-47734 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -