Influence of Li2+ Doping on the Structural and Optical Properties of CaO Synthesized by Sol–Gel Process.

This work proposes the synthesis of nanocrystalline calcium oxide (CaO) pure and doped with different concentrations of lithium (Li 2 + ) ions by sol–gel process. Calcium nitrate (Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ⋅ 4H₂O; 99.99%) and lithium nitrate (LiNO₃; 99.99%) were used as precursors. The synthesized powders were characterized by several techniques such as: UV-Vis transmission spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The main objective of this paper is to study the influence of lithium (Li 2 + ratio) on the structural and optical properties of synthesized powders. The band gap values decreased with the increasing of Li 2 + ions in CaO lattice; the slight change in the band gap was directly related to the energy transfer between the CaO excited states and the 2s levels of Li 2 + ions. The influence of Li 2 + doping on the physical properties of CaO nanocrystalline will be studied for the first time in this work; no literature has previously published this kind of impurities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]