Exploring Structural and Optical Properties of Nanoparticles of Barium Titanate and Iron-doped Barium Titanate and their Potential Application in Antibacterial Activity

Background: Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) is a good candidate for a variety of applications due to its excellent dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. Methods: Pure and doped Barium Titanate (BTO) nanoparticles have been synthesized by the sol-gel method. Barium hydroxide octahydrate (Ba (OH)2.8H2O) and titanium (IV) iso-propoxide (Ti {OCH[CH3]2}4) were used as starting materials. Apart from pure Barium Titanate nanoparticles, Fe-doped BaTiO3 nanoparticles of three different concentrations: 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 in mol% were prepared and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV visible spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results: From the X-ray diffraction pattern, the particle size was found to be varied in a range of 17-25nm. By using UV visible spectroscopy it was observed that the band gap energy of pure BaTiO3 NP is 3.2eV. As the pure BaTiO3 nanoparticles are doped with 0.1% Fe, the band gap reduces to 3.175eV. For BaTiO3 doped with 0.2% and 0.3% Fe, the band gap energy values are 2.709 and 2.652 respectively. FTIR spectra were used to analyze the vibrational modes of BaTiO3. From the result obtained from FTIR, we can see that the absorption spectrum ranges from 450cm-1-4000cm-1. The prominent peak of pure BaTiO3 is at 500cm-1 which is due to the vibration of the Ti-O band in crystal lattice. For BaTiO3 doped with Fe2O3, the wave number of the absorption peak is shifted from 500cm-1 in pure BaTiO3. The antibacterial studies were conducted on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Conclusion: Both pure and iron-doped Barium Titanate showed significant antibacterial properties, confirming the antibacterial property of Barium Titanate nanoparticles.