Synthesis and physicochemical properties of CuMn2O4 nanoparticles; a potential semiconductor for photoelectric devices

CuMn2O4 nanoparticles, a semiconducting materials with tunable functionalities in solid oxide fuel cell, was successfully synthesized via a sol-gel method using its respective metal cations sources i.e. Cu2+ and Mn2+ in an appropriate complexing agent.The vibrational frequencies below 1000 cm-1 of the obtained materials confirmed the formation of metal-oxygen (M-O:Cu-O, Mn-O) bond in the sample. The structural analysis of the crystalline phase indicates the formation of a series of sharp peaks with particle size about 39 nm.The cubic crystal structure clearly confirmed the formation of CuMn2O4 with space group Fd3m-copper ions occupied the tetrahedral sites according to (111), (220), (311), and (222) Miller index parameters. Heterogeneous morphology of CuMn2O4 nanoparticles indicated an agglomerated grain structure. The excitation threshold of photoluminescence (PL) indicated that the CuMn2O4 is a medium material in photoluminescence applications. The band gap energy (Eg) equal to 1.4 eV calculated from DR spectra, reavealed that CuMn2O4 can be used as a semiconducting material in photoelectrical devices. Color scale parameters evaluated by colorimetric analysis resulted characteristic values of L*=20.18, a*=2.98 and b*=2.94.