Studies of the Atomic and Crystalline Characteristics of Ceramic Oxide Nano Powders after Bio field Treatment

What is it about?

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been known for their extraordinary electrical and magnetic properties. In the present study, some transition metal oxides (Zinc oxide, iron oxide and copper oxide) which are widely used in the fabrication of electronic devices were selected and subjected to biofield treatment. The atomic and crystal structures of TMOs were carefully studied by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. XRD analysis reveals that biofield treatment significantly changed the lattice strain in unit cells, crystallite sizes and densities in ceramics oxide powders. The computed molecular weight of the treated samples exhibited significant variation. FT-IR spectra indicated that biofield treatment has altered the metal-oxygen bond strength. Since biofield treatment significantly altered the crystallite size, lattice strain and bond strength, we postulate that electrical and magnetic properties in TMOs (transition metal oxides) can be modulated by biofield treatment.

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Why is it important?

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) exhibit fascinating properties such as piezoelectricity, ferroelectricity, nonlinear optical behaviour, wide band gap and high-TC superconductivity, which allows these metal oxides to use in electronic and optical device industries [1]. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a common example of TMO which has been used in fabrication of light emitting diodes (LEDs), Varistors (a ceramic resistor which used to protect electronic circuits from high voltages) due to its wide band gap (3.37eV) and large excitation binding energy [2-4]. On the other hand iron oxide (Fe3O4) is mainly utilized in fabrication of biosensors due to its low inherent toxicity, biocompatibility and strong paramagnetic behaviour [5]. Copper oxide has been used as a p-type semiconductor for the fabrication of electrical, photovoltaic devices, field emission devices due to its narrow band gap of 1.5 eV and high optical absorption coefficient [6]. Moreover, in TMOs the magnetic, electrical and optical properties are directly influenced by lattice strain and crystallite size [7,8]. ZnO using in Varistors requires low leakage current during continuous operating voltage and uniform current distribution for better performance, which is possible by controlling its crystallite size [7]. Energy band gaps in ZnO and CuO can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the lattice parameter (Energy band gap is inversely proportional to lattice parameter) [8]. Researchers have optimized band gap in ceramics by controlling the composition of certain alloys and lattice constant of unit cell. It is known that tailoring the energy band gap in ceramic oxides is crucial to create barrier layers and quantum wells with materials of matching properties such as electron affinity and lattice constant [9,10]. Recently, TMOs nanoparticles are synthesized by electrophoretic deposition, laser ablation, anodization hydrothermal methods, electrochemical depositions sol–gel method, microwave-assisted combustion chemical vapour deposition, thermal decomposition, combustion method, ultrasound method and co-precipitation as per various literatures, wherein correlation of band gap with crystal structure and morphology has been studied [11-21]. In the prior published studies, Biofield treatment has been used to cause the changes in the atomic and structural properties such as lattice constant, bond strength, and molecular weight. Recently it was reported that a robotic quad copter in space can be controlled through the power of thoughts [22]. Trivedi’s biofield, referred herein as biofield treatment, is known to transform the atomic, molecular, structural properties of various metals and ceramics in the field of material science [23-30], such as it has enlarged the particle size by 432% in zinc powder [23] and enhanced the crystallite size by 66% in vanadium pentoxide [27]. Additionally, the biofield treatment also achieved excellent results in various other fields such as microbiology [31-33], biotechnology [34,35] and agriculture [36-38] etc., which are reported elsewhere. In the present investigation effect of Trivedi’s biofield treatment on three TMOs nanopowders, (Zinc oxide, Iron oxide and copper oxide) are studied at the atomic and structural level.

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