Silver doped lanthanum chromites by microwave combustion method

Considering the advantages of microwave combustion technique with the possibility of utilizing cheap precursors, short reaction time and nanocrystalline products, the present work reports the synthesis of silver doped lanthanum chromites. Structural and physicochemical properties were investigated with the help of various characterization techniques. The FTIR spectrum reveals the characteristic metal oxygen bands for Cr-0 stretching at 604 cm(-1), O-Cr-O bending mode at 419 cm(-1) and Ag-O bands at 561 cm(-1) and 443 cm(-1). The powder X-ray diffraction patterns exhibit the formation of hexagonal structure with the dopant peaks at 2 theta values of 38.3 degrees, 44.1 degrees and 64.4 degrees apart from the peaks corresponding to lanthanum chromite. TGA analysis of the samples shows stable behavior of the product. Nanosized particles with size as small as similar to 7-8 nm and larger ones similar to 20-26 nm are observed from transmission electron micrographs. Room temperature magnetic study exhibits hysteresis loop formation during magnetization of samples. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.