Optical, dielectric and photocatalytic properties of perovskite ZnTiO3 nanoparticle synthesized by sonochemical process

Abstract

The sonochemical method was employed for synthesizing perovskite zinc titanate nanopowders. The yield powders were calcined at 600-900 °C for 2 h. High crystallinity phase of cubic ZnTiO3 was obtained at calcination temperature of 600 °C while mixing phase of cubic and hexagonal was observed in the sample calcined at 700 °C. For the samples calcined at 800 and 900 °C, the hexagonal structure was dominant phase with a trace of rutile TiO2 and spinel Zn2TiO4 phase. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy technique (XANES) was used to probe crystal and local structure of the synthesized powders. The samples calcined at 700 °C exhibited the superior photocatalytic performance in decolorization of Rhodamine B dye under ultraviolet irradiation within 75 min. The dielectric permittivity and loss tangent of ZnTiO3 calcined at 700 °C was found to be 20 and <10-2. Effect of calcination temperature on structural, morphology, optical, dielectric properties and photocatalytic activity were also investigated and discussed.