Optical, electrical and magnetic properties of lanthanum strontium manganite La 1-x Sr x MnO 3 synthesized through the citrate combustion method.

Generally, strontium-doped lanthanum manganites (LSM) are materials connected ordinarily as cathodes in the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). In this study, the structural, optical, electrical and magnetic properties of La1-x Srx MnO3 (x = 0.2, 0.5, 0.8) synthesized using an organic acid precursor strategy were investigated, based on using citric acid as a fuel. Evidently, the results disclosed that a pure single monoclinic LSM phase was obtained from the thermally treated precursors annealed at 1000 °C with an annealing time of 2 h. The microstructure of the formed sample relied on the Sr2+ ion content. Moreover, a good optical transparency of 45-60% in a wide range of wavelengths between 800 and 1800 nm for all samples substituted by Sr2+ ions was performed. The optical band gap energy was increased from 2.09 to 2.76 eV by increasing the Sr2+ ion molar ratios. The trend in the calculated refractive index, the high frequency dielectric constant (εα ) and the static dielectric constant (ε0 ) of all the produced samples can be linked to an increase in the Sr2+ ion concentration. Moreover, the magnetic properties were enhanced with increasing Sr2+ ion content.