Abstract:The nanostructures of zinc chromite (ZnCr₂O₄) were fabricated by the microwave method. It was shown that the well-crystallized spinel structure is formed after annealing at 700 °C. The influence of reaction time and irradiation power of oven on the size and shape of the as-prepared ZnCr₂O₄ samples was studied. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), respectively. The optical band gap calculated using DRS was found to be 3.50 eV for ZnCr₂O₄ nanostructures. Photoluminescence measurements also confirmed this result.

Key words: zinc chromite; nanostructures; superhydrophilicty; magnetic property; optical property