A comparative study of structural, optical, and magnetic properties of LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 perovskite nanoparticles

The creation of perovskite-based materials with a high absorption rate and a regulated effective absorption bandwidth is the top priority for the majority of applications. In the present study, the LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using the microwave combustion method, exploiting l-arginine as fuel. The characterization of the prepared LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 NPs was carried out using multiple advanced techniques. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirmed the prepared LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 NPs to exist in their orthorhombic perovskite structure. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) peak areas are often used to quantify the elemental compositions and oxidizing states of LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 perovskite materials surface. Moreover, their respective average size of 21 and 25 nm was estimated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) technique. The infrared (IR) spectra of LaFeO3 NPs indicated the appearance of two bands at 656 and 570 cm−1, which can be ascribed to stretching vibration for La3+–O2− tetrahedral and Fe3+–O2− octahedral units, respectively. Further, associating ultraviolet (UV) with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), the band gap value for LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 NPs was found to be 2.17 and 2.13 eV, respectively. In addition, the magnetic investigations via magnetic hysteresis (M–H) loops revealed the ferromagnetic behavior of both the LaFeO3 and La2CuO4 NPs.