Tracking the changes in the structural, optical and photoluminescent properties of CuCo<inf>2</inf>O<inf>4</inf>/MnS nanocomposites with different composition ratios

Abstract

(1-x)CuCo2O4/xMnS (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5) nanocomposite samples were formed using hydrothermal and thermolysis procedures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) phase analysis showed the formation of only CuCo2O4 phase necessitating the inclusion of Mn and S ions into the CuCo2O4 lattice. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses confirmed the presence of Mn and S ions in the nanocomposite samples. Rietveld refinement method was applied to determine the cation distribution of the different ions between different sites. The cell parameter (a) has no fixed trend of change. The average crystallite size is almost the same for all samples with an average of 15 nm. The effect of insertion of Mn and S ions into the CuCo2O4 on the diffused absorbance, extinction coefficient, refractive index, dielectric properties, and nonlinear optical parameters was discussed in detail. The pristine CuCo2O4 nanoparticles have two direct optical band gaps (1.65, 2.74) eV which are decreased to (1.59, 2.56) and (1.58, 2.54) eV for the MnS content x = 0.25 and 0.5, respectively. The two indirect optical band gaps of pristine CuCo2O4 changed irregularly as the MnS amount increased in the nanocomposite. The PL spectrum of CuCo2O4 is shifted to higher wavelength in the visible region upon alloying with MnS. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the nanocomposite samples is smaller than that of CuCo2O4 sample. The emitted PL colors depended on the amount of Mn and S ions in the CuCo2O4 matrix.