The effect of lithium doping on structural, thermal, optical and electrical properties of potash alum single crystals

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry communications Vol. 145; p. 109985
• Main Authors: Abdulwahab, A.M., Mohammad AL-Dhabyani, Khadijah, Ahmed Ali Ahmed, Abdullah, Mohammed Al-Hada, Naif, Qaid, A.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-11-2022
• Subjects: Electrical conductivity; Li-doped; Optical band gap; Phase transition; Potash alum single crystals; Potash alum single crystals; Optical band gap; Li-doped; Electrical conductivity; Phase transition
• ISSN: 1387-7003; 1879-0259
• DOI: 10.1016/j.inoche.2022.109985

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•Pure and Li-doped potash alum single crystals were grown using slow evaporation.•Structural, thermal, optical and electrical properties of crystals were studied.•Doping potash alum crystal with Li made its room temperature phase more stable.•Optical band gap decreases and electrical conductivity increases by doping with Li.•Li-doped potash alum has better conditions for use in applications than pure one.
At room temperature, supersaturated aqueous solutions were employed to grow single crystals of pure and Li-doped potash alum using the slow evaporation technique. The impact of lithium as dopant on the grown crystals' structural, thermal, optical and electrical properties was investigated. It was established that every crystal found during this work was potash alum, which has a cubic structure, space group Pa3 and Z = 4. Four peaks that indicated potash alum phase transitions were found during thermal investigation; these peaks moved with rising Li concentration. Li doping of potash alum increased the stability of the room temperature phase. This improvement in potash alum's stability after doping with lithium provided better conditions for its employment as an antibiotic and catalyst. The optical band gap energy of potash alum fell from 5.75 eV to 4.57 eV as Li concentration increased from 0 to 0.10 M. Potash alum's dc electrical conductivity increased as the Li content increased.