Journal des nanomatériaux et de la nanotechnologie moléculaire

Fabrication of Mixed Phase Bimetallic Zinc Cobaltite Nanocomposite via Moringa Oleifera Green Synthesis

Nolubabalo Matinise, Xolile Fuku and Malik Maaza

Fabrication of Mixed Phase Bimetallic Zinc Cobaltite Nanocomposite via Moringa Oleifera Green Synthesis

Mixed phase bimetallic nanocomposite oxides are combination of two different metal oxides of a nanoscaled range. These novel nanocomposites recently received attention due to their physical and optical properties, which can improve the activity of single metal oxides and allow new kinds of applications. In this paper, we demonstrate a facile and straightforward biosynthetic method for the preparation of spinal Zinc Cobaltite nanocomposite via green chemistry using Moringa oleifera extract as an effective chelating agent. The nano-scaled and the cubic crystallographic nature of the biosynthesized nanocrystals were confirmed by several surface & interface standard techniques. The crystal phase, morphology, particle size, optical and chemical bonding of the prepared materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Photoluminescence and high resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction; and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The efficient synthetic method facilitated the production of spinel ZnCo2O4 with a particle size of 25-50 nm and having a cubical shape, whereas XRD revealed that the synthesized spinel Zinc Cobaltite non-annealed and annealed at 300ºC are amorphous and crystalline in nature.