Study of Ce-doping effects on optical, morphological, magnetic, structural, and antibacterial properties of NiCr2O4 ceramics

[Display omitted] •Synthesis of undoped NiCr2O4 and Ce doped NiCr2O4 materials using microwave method.•Structural, optical, magnetic and antibacterial properties were extensively analyzed.•The substitution of Ce ion into NiCr2O4 particles which improves the properties.•The Ce doped NiCr2O4 shows an excellent anti-bacterial performance than pure NiCr2O4. We present a comprehensive study on optimization of microwave method routes for producing well-crystalline spinel chromite, nicr2o4 and Ce-doped nicr2o4. All samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and vibrational spectroscopy in order to evaluate their phase composition, particle size and micro-strain. Selected samples were investigated by adopting transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and optical spectra (absorption spectroscopy & photoluminescence, PL). The presence of large concentration of anion deficiency and its related defects, are reflected in the intense emission of PL spectra and in lowering the band gap value with respect to the bulk counterpart. As the Ce concentration increases, the size of the nanoparticles reduced from ∼33 to 22 nm. The effects of the cation distributions on geometrical variations of electronic and magnetic properties of nicr2o4 can be interpreted as dominated by the local behavior of Ni2+ at octahedral and Cr3+ tetrahedral sites. In the present work, the results indicate that the substitution of Ce ion into nickel chromite particles, enhances effects of the magnetic, optical properties, and also enhances the antibacterial properties.