Abstract
The thermal, microstructural, optical, and magnetic properties of La0.7Ca0.15 Pb0.15CoO3 (abbreviated as LCPCO) cobaltite perovskite synthesized via sol-gel technique were investigated in this study. The TGA study reveals the completion of the crystallization pathway and the immediate formation of the sample. The obtained X-ray diffractogram with Rietveld refinement shows that the sample crystallizes in the rhombohedral structure with R (3) over barc space group. Homogeneous particle distribution was observed from the SEM micrograph. From FTIR spectrum, LCPCO presents two absorption bands around nu(1 )= 415 cm(-1) and nu(2) = 574 cm(-1) which are assigned to the O-Co-O bending vibration from the CoO6 octahedra in LaCoO3 perovskite, and Co-O stretching vibration, respectively. The UV-Vis absorbance spectrum reveals a remarkable visible-light absorption of the prepared sample with significantly lower band gap energy (E-gd = 1.549 eV). Additionally, significantly lower coercivity was observed, making the LCPCO perovskite cobaltite a promising candidate for recording media.