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Electrical, dielectric and photocatalytic applications of iron-based nanocomposites

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Abstract

A series of iron-based nanocomposites such as Cu–Fe (CFNCs), Ni–Fe (NFNCs), Ag–Fe (SFNCs) and Al–Fe (AFNCs) were fabricated via sol–gel route. An extensive investigation about crystallinity, microstructure, electrical and optical properties was carried out by utilizing X-ray diffractometer (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The frequency-dependent AC conductivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss were measured in the frequency range of 25 kHz–2 MHz at room temperature via an LCR meter. The highest conductivity ~ 2.85 × 10−7S/m was revealed by AFNCs as compared to other nanocomposites. The Maxwell–Wagner model for induced polarization and Koop’s phenomenological theory of dielectrics were followed by all the fabricated nanocomposites in the temperature range of 30–600 °C. The maximum dielectric constant ~ 930 was measured for AFNCs at a temperature of 200 °C. Furthermore, the synthesized nanocomposites effectively degraded a toxic organic dye Rhodamine B (RhB) and the degradation (%) ~ 77, 85, 86, and 87 within the time of 50, 40, 50 and 70 min was recorded for CFNCs, NFNCs, SFNCs and AFNCs, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are highly grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51571002), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2172008), Program of Beijing City and Beijing University of Technology, Evaluation Research for the Performance of Tapes (GH-201809CG005), General Program of Science and Technology, Development Project of Beijing Municipal Education Commission of China (No. KM201810005010), Project of Advanced Discipline (No. PXM2019-014204-500031) and the Department of Chemistry, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Charsadda-24420, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Pakistan. Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

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  1. The Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Kausar Shaheen, Lin Ma, Min Liu, Yi Wang, Jin Cui, Yao Tang Ji & Hongli Suo

  2. Department of Physics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, 25120, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    Kausar Shaheen

  3. Department of Physics, Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, 25120, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    Kausar Shaheen

  4. Department of Chemistry, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Charsadda, 24420, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    Zarbad Shah & Tofail Arshad

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  1. Kausar Shaheen
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Shaheen, K., Shah, Z., Arshad, T. et al. Electrical, dielectric and photocatalytic applications of iron-based nanocomposites. Appl. Phys. A 126, 149 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-3302-5

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