Synthesis and investigation on the structural, optical, and electrical proprieties of Nd_0.5Ce_0.5CoO₃ prepared using sol–gel route for various application

The sol gel process was used to elaborate nanoparticles with the formula Nd_0.5Ce_0.5CoO₃ sintered at 850 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to study the phase of our compound as well as the average particle size. Our sample has an orthorhombic structure with the Pnma space group. Furthermore, impedance spectroscopy was used to characterize the electrical and dielectric properties as a function of frequency temperature. The material produced exhibits semiconducting behavior and its electrical conductivity obeys the Jonscher’s power law and the conduction mechanism between neighboring sites follows the concept of “non-overlapping small polaron tunnelling” (NSPT). The Maxwell–Wagner theory of interfacial polarization was used to analyze the measures of dielectric constants like loss coefficient and permittivity. With increasing temperature, the Nyquist plots (Z′′ vs. Z′) reveal that the effect of grain boundaries govern the transport mechanism for the Nd_0.5Ce_0.5CoO₃ combination. We employed the UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy method to examine the optical characteristics of this ceramic. The analysis of the diffused reflectance curves (DRS) indicate that the prepared sample has a good optical absorption behavior in the UV region. Using (DRS) data and with the help of Kubelka–Munk formula, we determined the direct band gap energy E_g = 2.87 eV of the treated system. On the other hand, the reflectance values were used to calculate the Urbach energy, the optical extinction coefficient and the refractive index. We also proved that the refractive index n follows Cauchy’s law.