The Effect of Polyethylene Glycol on Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles Prepared Using Sonochemical Synthesis

Abstract

In this work, Cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co₃O₄·NPs) were synthesized via a simple sonochemical reaction by using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a surfactant. Structural, morphological and spectroscopic analysis of obtained powder (Co₃O₄·NPs) was investigated by X-ray diffraction, FTIR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The nanocrystalline nature of the sample was confirmed by XRD, which exhibits the cubic face-centered normal spinel structure of (Co₃O₄·NPs) and the space group of Fd-3m with the average crystallite size around 15 nm. FTIR spectrum shows two strong absorption bands of (Co⁺²-O) and (Co⁺³-O) which confirm the spinel structure of Co₃O₄·NPs. Moreover, SEM micrographs showed that the agglomeration of the nanoparticles was reduced by the addition of (PEG) surfactant and UV-Vis was used to study the synthesized material’s optical properties. The Co₃O₄ band gap ranged around 2.2 and 3.5 eV.

Keywords

Cobalt oxide nanoparticlesz / Sonochemical synthesis / PEG / Surfactant

Acknowledgments

I thank the Synthesis and Catalysis Laboratory at Ibn Khaldoun University, Tiaret, Algeria, and Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates for hosting me during my internship.

Author Contributions

G. D. conducted all the experiments and wrote the first draft as part of his Ph.D. A.B. supervised G.D. and revised the text, while N.H. collaborated with G.D. on some of the characterizations.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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