Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics
Open Access
ISSN: 2161-0398
ISSN: 2161-0398
Farhan Ahmad, Shafaque Rahman, Rana Tabassum* and Aurangzeb Khurram Hafiz
We describe a tricomposite nanostructure based method to measure the trace amount of refractive index in aqueous solutions. It utilizes tantalum (v) oxide, silicon and graphite to fabricate the tricomposite nanostructures. The tricomposite nanostructures were prepared using hydrothermal method where the concentration of (x) of Si in Ta2O5 was varied while the concentration of graphite was kept constant. The concentration of Si in Ta2O5 was measured by Maxwell-Garnett model using volume filling factor ‘f’ (0 ≤ f ≤ 1) of Si in Ta2O5. The fabricated Ta2O5:Si:Graphite tricomposite nanostructures were characterized by SEM, XRD, UV-Vis, PL, FTIR characterization techniques. Then aqueous solution of varying refractive indices were prepared in the range 1.33-1.39 in the already prepared tricomposite nanoflower structure solution. The refractive index measurement were probed by measuring absorption spectra corresponding to each tricomposite nanostructures. The performance of the sensor was explored in terms of shift in peak absorption spectra, sensitivity and more over the limit of detection. The sensor shows sensitivity and limit of detection of (156-260) nm/RIU and 5.14 x 10-3 RIU respectively. A linear declining of sensitivity was observed within the refractive index range. The sensor possesses a distinguished feature of using tricomposite nanoflower structure which is an efficient method for refractive index measurement.
Published Date: 2022-07-11; Received Date: 2022-06-10