Electrical, dielectric and photocatalytic applications of iron-based nanocomposites

A series of iron-based nanocomposites such as Cu-Fe (CFNCs), Ni-Fe (NFNCs), Ag-Fe (SFNCs) and Al-Fe (AFNCs) were fabricated via sol-gel route. An extensive investigation about crystallinity, microstructure, electrical and optical properties was carried out by utilizing X-ray diffractometer (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The frequency-dependent AC conductivity, dielectric constant and dielectric loss were measured in the frequency range of 25 kHz-2 MHz at room temperature via an LCR meter. The highest conductivity similar to 2.85 x 10(-7)S/m was revealed by AFNCs as compared to other nanocomposites. The Maxwell-Wagner model for induced polarization and Koop's phenomenological theory of dielectrics were followed by all the fabricated nanocomposites in the temperature range of 30-600 degrees C. The maximum dielectric constant similar to 930 was measured for AFNCs at a temperature of 200 degrees C. Furthermore, the synthesized nanocomposites effectively degraded a toxic organic dye Rhodamine B (RhB) and the degradation (%) similar to 77, 85, 86, and 87 within the time of 50, 40, 50 and 70 min was recorded for CFNCs, NFNCs, SFNCs and AFNCs, respectively. Graphic abstract