Investigation of optical, magnetic and antimicrobial characterization of BaCoO2.6 nanoparticles
Abstract
The research reports first on the optical properties of BaCoO2.6 nanoparticles, using the transmission spectrum, viz., the band gap. The nanoparticle size of 25 nm with grain size ranging from 0.5 μm to 5 μm was revealed. Tauc's indirect transition model describes the optical band gap (Eg) as 5.28 eV, using which the optical features such as extinction coefficient, refractive index, and the loss function have been evaluated. The synthesized sample's average refractive index lies in the range 1.0–2.5, the Urbach energy, calculated from inter-band localized electronic states generated by defects, was found to be 2.01 eV. As the entire region does not bear any absorption band, the sample finds its suitability in NLO-SHG devices. Interesting outcomes in line with optical properties were also demonstrated by the photoluminescence properties. The electron transition at 800 nm, which is also linked to the electronic transition of Co2+/Co3+ ions, is responsible for the peak. The electrons may be trapped at the oxygen vacancies at a tetrahedral site, or they may be caused by impurities or structural flaws in the material and may suggest a mixed phase transition. The magnetic squareness ratio being less than 0.5 emphasizes the synthesized sample’s anisotropic, single-domain, soft magnetic nature. The present exploration of BaCoO2.6 nanoparticles highlights that their antimicrobial efficacy extends well beyond conventional growth inhibition metrics such as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC).
Copyright (c) 2026 Fareenpoornima Rafiq, Sumathi Jones, Parthipan Govindsamy, Papitha Purushothaman

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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