Spinach leaves extract mediated synthesis of reduced graphene oxide decorated nanoferrites: Structural, X-ray/gamma ray radiation shielding and optical properties

The reduced graphene oxide decorated nanoferrites (MgFe2O4, MnFe2O4, CoFe2O4, NiFe2O4, CuFe2O4, ZnFe2O4 and BaFe2O4) are synthesized via green solution combustion method using Spinach leaves as a reducing agent. The synthesized sample was characterized with different techniques. All the rGO/nanoferrites shows the planes corresponding to rGO which confirms the presence of rGO in the NCs. Except BaFe2O/rGO NCs all the nanoferrites/rGO shows the Bragg reflections corresponding to spinel cubic structure. However, BaFe2O/rGO NCs shows the orthorhombic phase with peaks corresponding to Fe2O3 and BaFe12O19. The crystallite size and other structural parameters are discussed in detail. The surface morphology consists of irregular shaped NPs on the rGO sheet. The energy band gap was determined by using Wood and Tauc's relation. The Photoluminescence, CIE and CCT analysis clearly shows rGO/nanoferrites might be potential candidate as a blue phosphor in warm/cool Light Emitting Diodes and meet the needs of illumination devices. Further, X-ray/gamma ray interaction parameters are discussed in detail.