Growth and physical property studies of a BioMOF: silver mandelate crystals for optical and dielectric applications

Abstract

ABSTRACT Biological metal-organic frameworks (BioMOF) formed by coordinating metal ions with biologically derived organic ligands have rising scientific stature owing to their superior functionalities. In the current work silver mandelate crystals (Ag(C8H7O3)), a silver-based bio-MOF are grown in hydrosilica gel medium activated with mandelate anions. XRD pattern of the powdered crystal confirmed the crystallinity of the crystals and the diffraction pattern is matched with the reported card data. Raman and FTIR spectra analyses confirmed the formation of the compound and ensured the presence of various functional groups in the crystal. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed the chemical formula of the grown crystal and Differential Thermal analysis (DTA) stated that the compound is thermally stable. The single-stage thermal degradation over the temperature range of 160–350°C shows the- final degraded product is crystalline silver. The electronic spectral studies of the grown crystals show that the optical band gap energy is 4.36 eV. The dielectric behaviour is examined by studying the variation of dielectric constant, conductivity, and dielectric loss with the frequency of the applied field.