Study of the physical properties of thin films of Fe2O3 doped with copper and aluminum, prepared by spray pyrolysis

Abstract

(In this work, pure ?-Fe 2 O hematite sheets doped with aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu) were prepared by sputtering method with moving nozzle SPMN at temperature (500°C) with concentration of 0.25 M. Chloride iron (FeCl3) was used as a source of iron oxide and aluminum chloride hexahydrate (AlCl336HO) and copper sulfate (CuSO42) were used as aluminum and copper sources, respectively. The diagnosis was aided by the following imaging techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis and FTIR spectroscopy . The X-ray diffraction spectra of all samples show a polycrystalline rhombohedral structure with a preferred orientation (110) and the absorption intensity ratios change with the doping ratios of aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu). The crystallite size values of pure and doped samples (Cu/Al ?-Fe2O) range between (33.01 -13.54 nm). UV-Vis spectroscopy was utilized to systematically examine the optical properties of 3Cu/Al-doped ?-Fe?O? samples. The analysis revealed a high optical transparency of approximately 95% across all samples, indicating minimal light absorption in the visible range. Furthermore, the optical band gap energies, calculated from the Tauc plots, were found to lie within the range of 2.14 to 2.70 eV. FTIR spectra showed the formation of iron(III) oxide crystals with the presence of Fe-O bond in most samples. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that the surface of the pure and grafted substrates was completely covered with a homogeneous surface with few pores.)