Characterisation and Optical Studies of Copper Oxide Nanostructures Doped with Lanthanum Ions

Copper Oxide is an extensively studied group II-VI semiconductor with optical properties. It exhibits a wide variety of morphologies in the nano regime that can be grown by tuning the growth habit of the CuO crystal. CuO nano materials with an average particle size of 15-27 nm are synthesized by chemical route. XRD, SEM, FTIR UV-Vis and EDS characterize the samples. The percentage of doping material is confirmed from the EDS spectra. The average crystal size of the prepared CuO: La nanopowder is determined by XRD. The UV absorption spectra revealed the absorption edge at wavelength 389 nm indicating the smaller size of CuO:La nano particle. The optical direct band gap energy of doped CuO nanoparticle is found to be in the range 3.149 eV. The increasing red shift with decreasing particle size suggests that the defects responsible for the intra gap states are primarily surface defect. The La doped CuO is highly effective and can significantly enhance the photo catalytic degradation.