Optical Properties of Monazite Nanoparticles Prepared Via Ball Milling

This research work focused on the preparation of Monazite nanoparticles using ball milling technique and the determination of its optical properties. High energy ball milling was used to prepare nanoparticles from the bulk materials using the top-down technique. Debye–Scherer formula was used to determine the crystalline size of the nanoparticle. Optical properties such as transmittance, refractive index, extinction coefficient, optical conductivity and band gap energy were determined. The result showed that the crystalline size was about 64.23nm on the average. The dislocation density calculated ranged from 0.149 x 10-3nm to 0.460 x 10-3nm. The absorbance decreased as the wavelength spectrum moved from the ultraviolet region to the visible region and the near-infrared region. The refractive index increased from 1.57 a.u to 2.65 a.u as the photon energy increased from about 1.38eV to 1.14eV. The transmittance at the near-infrared region was even up to 90.9% in some cases. The band energy gap was between 3.57eV and 4.11eV. The properties of the Monazite nanoparticles determined showed that it can have possible applications in optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices.