The influence of rGO and GO nano plates on structural, optical and magnetic properties of SnFe₂O₄ nanocomposites synthesised by sol–gel, microwave and co-precipitation methods

This paper investigates on synthesis and structural, optical and magnetic properties of SnFe₂O₄ spinel/graphene oxide (GO)/rGO nanocomposites by sol–gel, microwave and co-precipitation methods. The synthesis of these nanoparticles was achieved through simple and cost-effective methods. A variety of techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectroscopy, Field emission electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were utilized to analyse the nanoparticles. By using the crystallography different methods like Scherer, Rietveld, and Williamson-Hall, various structural properties were studied. The X-ray diffraction patterns indicated the peaks presence corresponding to graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and SnFe₂O₄ spinel phase in the SnFe₂O₄ / GO and rGO nanocomposites. The peak with the highest intensity in the (311) direction was found in the SFO/rGO nanocomposite. Additionally, morphology images by FESEM showed the formation of small cube-shaped and polyhedral structures for SnFe₂O₄ phase and GO and rGO as nano plates. Optical properties such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric constant, Urbach energy, and reflection coefficient were analysed using UV–Vis spectroscopy. The optical analysis results show that the SnFe₂O₄/rGO nanocomposite had the highest level of light absorption with band gap in range E_g = 2.28–3.21 eV as wide band gap semiconductor. The Vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis showed that samples containing tin ferrite exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour. FTIR analysis identified metal oxide peaks (Sn–O) and (Fe–O) in the nanoparticle samples, while organic bonds such as hydroxyl, epoxide, carbonyl, and carboxylic were found in GO and rGO nanocomposite samples.