Conveners
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- peace prince mkhonto (University of Limpopo)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials: Parallel Session
- Setumo Victor Motloung (SMU)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials: Parallel Session
- Mart-Mari Duvenhage (University of the Free State)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Bertrand SONE (iThemba LABS-UWC)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Madan Singh (National university of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Deon Marais (The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa))
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Rapela Maphanga (CSIR)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Mmantsae Diale (University of Pretoria)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Ganga Babu Geetha (University of Johannesburg)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Raesibe Sylvia Ledwaba (University of Limpopo)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Odireleng Ntwaeaborwa (University of the Witwatersrand)
Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
- Mofuti Mehlape (University Of Limpopo)
14.
Bandgap tuned Co<sup>2+</sup>-doped ZnO for the photocatalysis of Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B
Dr
Samvit Menon
(University of the Free State)
26/06/2018, 10:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Water pollution and the insufficiency of proper clean energy sources have resulted in the need for developing environmentally safe technologies and processes to combat this concern. One of the major constituents of wastewater are dyes, that are carcinogenic and immune to conventional physical and chemical remediation techniques. Thus, suitable techniques need to be designed to degrade these...
Mr
Cliffton Masedi
(UL)
26/06/2018, 10:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Recent rechargeable batteries are mainly based on conventional lithium intercalation chemistry, using lithium transition metal oxides as cathode material with typical capacities of 120-160 mA.h/g. The low energy density and/ or high cost of these cathode materials have limited their large scale production and application in Li ion batteries. Exploration of new cathode materials is consequently...
Dr
Shivaramu N J
(Department of Physics, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, ZA-9300, South Africa)
26/06/2018, 10:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Rare-earth ions doped nanocrystals are increasingly important as an active media for solid-state lasers which efficiently operate under diode pumping. Among them the thulium (Tm3+) ion could be an attractive activator with suitable absorption for commercial diode pumping. In addition to this, it shows long fluorescence life times and it is suitable for large energy storage devices. Tm3+ doped...
Dr
Ankush Kumar Bedyal
(Department of Physics, University of Free State)
26/06/2018, 10:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Non- rare earth doped phosphor materials particularly Mn4+ activated nitrides and fluorides are emerging as an alternative to rare earth doped red emitting phosphor materials for light emitting diodes, as these materials are more cost effective. Still it remains a challenge to prepare high purity red light emitting and cost effective non-rare earth doped red phosphors because of the...
Ms
zamaswazi portia Tshabalala
(DST/CSIR National Centre for Nano-Structured Materials, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa)
26/06/2018, 10:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Imperative increase has been observed over the years in the need of enhanced performance of gas sensor devices for the detection of toxic and combustible gases in working and living environments. The demand for accurate, fast, stable and portable devices rises with technology advances and wide application fields. Enhanced sensitivity, fast response, total recovery, and good selectivity are the...
Prof.
Madan Singh
(National University of Lesotho)
26/06/2018, 10:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The properties of bulk crystals depend upon their structure but in case of nanocrysatal, in addition to the structure, size and shape are the significant factor, which affect their properties. The shape factor has been introduced in the bond energy model. The basic idea is that the atomic cohesive energy decides the thermodynamical properties of the crystals. Also, cohesive energy changes with...
Mr
Brian Ramogayana
(UL)
26/06/2018, 11:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Rechargeable metal-air batteries have attracted a growing interest due to their significantly higher theoretical energy density. It is well recognize that the performance of the battery is governed by the electrochemical reactions that occur at the cathode which result in the formation of discharge products. Different discharge products are produced, through the Oxidation Reduction Reaction...
Mr
Edward Lee
(University of the Free State)
26/06/2018, 11:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Phosphor materials doped with various rare-earth (RE) elements have been used by the lighting industry in light emitting diodes and mercury free fluorescent tubes due to the wide range of possible luminescence ranging from ultraviolet (UV) through to the near-infrared (NIR) regions. In recent years, phosphor materials have been used to alter the solar spectrum in order to reduce the spectral...
Mr
DONALD HLUNGWANI
(UL)
26/06/2018, 11:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The integrated layered-spinel manganese composites are the most desired cathode materials for lithium ion batteries due to their enhanced safety, inexpensive and non-toxic properties. They are preferred over Ni- and Co- containing compounds due to their greater stability (retention of the Oxygen) in their charged state. It has been reported that the spinel and layered integrated composites...
Mr
Carmel Dansou
(Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa.)
26/06/2018, 11:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
In the last decade, a new class of solids known as “2D Dirac materials” has led to an outburst of research activities in condensed matter physics and materials science. The low-energy quasiparticles in these materials are described by the relativistic (2+1) Dirac equation rather than Schrodinger’s equation. The relativistic effect in these systems confers to them some unusual properties not...
Ms
Mogahabo Morukuladi
(UL)
26/06/2018, 12:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Rechargeable metal–air batteries are widely regarded as the next best generation of high energy density electrochemical storage devices. The performance and rechargeability of these metal–air batteries is highly dependent on the stability and performance of the positive electrode materials, where oxygen reduction and evolution reactions occur. Due to the high cost and limited resources for...
Ms
Beauty Shibiri
(University of Limpopo)
26/06/2018, 12:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Nanoporous spinel materials have ignited interest as cathode materials for lithium ion batteries owing to their superior rate capability at ambient temperature, improved electrochemical performance and mechanical stability, compared to the bulk material. However, nanospherical layered-spinel lithium manganese oxides (LMOs) cathodes have demonstrated spontaneously great reversible capacity (302...
Ms
Tshidi Malibe
(UL)
26/06/2018, 12:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) have emerged as a promising candidate for application in large scale energy devices. These batteries have the same battery configuration as lithium–ion batteries (LIBs), however the huge difference in the ionic size, makes it impossible for graphite (anode material in LIBs) to intercalate sodium ions. Therefore it is crucial to develop high-performance anode...
Mr
Lucas Erasmus
(University of the Free State)
26/06/2018, 12:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
This study is concentrating on the measurement of the emission of commercially available lanthanum oxysulphide doped with europium(III) (La2O2S:Eu(III)) phosphor material at various temperatures. For the thermal quenching process, the average activation energies for the emission from the 5D2, 5D1 and 5D0...
Mr
Mphamela Enos Baloyi
(UL)
26/06/2018, 12:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Ab initio density functional theory approach was employed to investigate the structural properties, elastic constant and phonon dispersion of B2 binary TiPt, TiCo, TiNi and TiZr shape memory alloys. We employed the plane-wave pseudopotential method within generalized gradient approximation parameterized by Perdew, Burke and Enzerhof using VASP code. These alloys have the ability to remember...
Dr
Setumo Victor Motloung
(SMU)
26/06/2018, 12:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Sr3Al2O6:1% Ce3+ nano-powders have been successfully prepared via sol-gel technique. Citric acid was used as a chelating agent. All powder samples were annealed at 950 oC and the annealing time (AT) was varied from 0.5 - 20 hrs. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and...
Ms
Mahlatse Manamela
(University of Limpopo)
27/06/2018, 10:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The mechano-chemical technique was employed to synthesise the undoped zinc oxide (ZnO), 5% cobalt (Co) and indium (In) single doped ZnO nanoparticles and Co-In double doped ZnO nanoparticles. The diffraction pattern for In-ZnO nanoparticles obtained from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals an additional peak that is associated with the In+3 dopant. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images...
Mr
Jeremiah Lethoba
(Department of Physics, University of Pretoria)
27/06/2018, 10:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The irradiation of a material with high-energy particles causes the formation of different types of defects in its crystalline lattice. At any temperature above absolute zero, the defects anneal spontaneously and the rate of annealing increases with temperature. The thermal energy released in the process of annealing contributes to the temperature of the material, and creates a positive...
Ms
Rethabile Makole
(University of the Free State)
27/06/2018, 10:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Quantification in XPS is not easy, more especially if the concentrations of the substituents in the sample are not homogeneous on the sample surface or with depth. In this study the Quases-Tougaard Software analyses approach was used to quantify Ag nano clusters in a Ag doped glass host. The specimens were synthesized by a simple molten bath ion exchange method and then annealed at different...
Mr
kemeridge Tumelo Malatji
(University of Limpopo)
27/06/2018, 11:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Spinel LiMn2O4 is a promising cathode material for secondary lithium-ion batteries which, despite its high average voltage of lithium intercalation, suffers crystal symmetry lowering due to the Jahn-Teller active six-fold Mn3+ cations. LiMn2 O4 is a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and highly abundant material used as a cathode in...
Mr
Abdulsalam Ismaila
(WITS)
27/06/2018, 11:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Silver nanoparticles (NPs) are known to exhibit a strong interaction with light because the conduction electrons on the metal surface undergo a collective oscillation once excited by light at specific wavelengths; the so-called surface plasmon resonance (SPR). However, their incorporation into amorphous carbon is shown to greatly influence the overall optical response of the nanomaterial due...
Mrs
Motlalepula Rebecca Mhlongo
(Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University)
27/06/2018, 12:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Neodymium activated strontium zinc aluminate (Sr3ZnAl2O7:x%Nd3+) nanophosphor was synthesized using the sol-gel technique whereby the Nd3+ concentration was varied in the range 0 ≤ x ≤ 2. The effect of Nd3+ concentration on the structure, particle morphology and photoluminescence properties of Sr3ZnAl2O7 were investigated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that all samples resembled...
Ms
Katekani Shingange
(CSIR/UFS)
27/06/2018, 12:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
ZnO has been used as a gas sensing material for different reducing and oxidizing gases, however; poor sensitivity and slow response and recovery times are hindering its commercial application. Doping of ZnO with different metallic ions such as rare earth and noble metals have proven to be one of the efficient ways of modifying its gas sensing performance. In this study, ZnO nanofibers with...
Mr
Zakhele Ndala
(Wits university)
27/06/2018, 12:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Molybdenum diselenide(MoSe2) is a layered material that has attracted a lot of interest in the scientific community; the 2D nanomaterials derived from the bulk crystals of these materials have been found to have exceptional electronic and optical properties. These properties include a high surface to volume ratio, high carrier mobility, relatively high stability and a band-gap in...
Mr
Babiker Jaffar
(ufs)
27/06/2018, 14:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Bismuth (Bi) ions exhibit interesting optical properties, yet have been less intensively studied compared to rare earth ions. Bi doped lanthanum oxide (La2O3:Bi3+) phosphor was synthesized via the sol-gel combustion method at 250 °C using citric acid as the fuel. The product powder was annealed at different temperatures between 800 °C to 1400 °C in air for 2 h....
Mr
Mahmood Akbari
(University of Cape Town)
27/06/2018, 14:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Graphene is an atomically thin two-dimensional (2-D) crystal with unique thermal, mechanical, and electronic transport properties such as the high mobility of carriers, perfect 2-D confinement, and linear dispersion, etc., has been attracted many interests as a promising candidate for nano-scale devices over the past decades. Multilayer stacks of graphene and other stable, atomically thin, 2-D...
Ms
Gaopalelwe Motaung
(University of South Africa)
27/06/2018, 14:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Organic polymer based electronics have attracted attention in the semiconductor industry for many different applications which include solar cells, lighting, display, and so on. Since polymers are naturally insulating materials, enhancing their electrical properties through modification of their conductance using ion implantation is a focal research area in the semiconductor industry. Previous...
Mr
Antonie Fourie
(University of the Free State)
27/06/2018, 15:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The core of a CZTS solar cell is the p-type absorber layer that gives this type of solar cell its name. It consists of copper, tin, zinc and sulfur in a single crystal structure: Cu2ZnSnS4. In this study two methods are investigated to deposit the copper, zinc and tin as precursor layers for the formation of the Cu2ZnSnS4 layer, namely electroplating and electron beam evaporation. One of the...
Mr
Ndivhuwo Shumbula
(university of witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 15:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely studied for decades and has attracted many researchers in various fields due to its advantageous characteristics such as a low limit of detection, easy sample preparation, non-destructive nature and high sensitivity. Recent studies have focused more on enhancing the Raman signal by manipulating various parameters of SERS. SERS signals...
Mr
Siyabonga Nkabinde
(University of the Witwatersrand)
27/06/2018, 16:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Coloured dye waste waters released by textile industry into the environment cause negative effects to living organisms due to their toxicity. A technique called advanced oxidation processes, which employs semiconductor photocatalysts (e.g. ZnO) in conjunction with light, has been developed to effectively degrade dyes in aqueous solution through oxidative species. Advanced oxidation processes...
Mr
BHILA OLIVER MNISI
(University of South Africa, Department of Physics)
27/06/2018, 16:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Ruthenium based alloys have excellent properties which makes them good candidates for high temperature applications. A large number of equipment such as turbine and spacecraft engines operates at high temperatures in aggressive chemical environments. Therefore there is a need to search for materials that can withstand extreme thermal, chemical and mechanical conditions for these applications....
Mr
Michael Ogunbunmi
(University of Johannesburg)
27/06/2018, 16:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
We have synthesized PrPt4Ag and PrPt4Au compounds for the first time and report their crystal structure, as well as magnetic and physical properties in the temperature range between 2 K and 300 K. Both compounds are derived from the substitution of Pt with Ag and Au respectively in the parent compound PrPt5 which crystallizes in the hexagonal...
Mr
Akin Olaleru
(University of venda, South Africa)
28/06/2018, 10:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Among all the components of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the perovskite materials play a central role in light absorption and photoelectric conversion. The optimization of the materials and structures is a key to enhancing the conversion efficiency. The perovskite materials for inclusion into solar cells were prepared by one and two-steps solution fabrication process to generate...
Mr
Tshegofatso Michael Phaahla
(University of Limpopo)
28/06/2018, 10:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Titanium clusters is one of the central theme in cluster science to investigate the evolution of the electronic, structural and magnetic properties of the metal clusters as a function of cluster size. The atomic structures and dynamics of nanoclusters have been of crucial importance in both experimental and theoretical studies owing to their useful physical and chemical properties in various...
Ms
zeldah sentsho
(necsa)
28/06/2018, 10:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
ASTM SA-335 Grade P91 / T91, a 9%Cr creep strength enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steel, is commonly used in modern power industry for manufacturing critical pressure components and vessels, tubing, piping and headers. The objective of the current study is to determine the temperatures at which transformation of BCC ferrite to FCC austenite starts and finishes on heating (the so-called Ac1 and Ac3...
Dr
ARUP KUNTI
(University of the Free State)
28/06/2018, 11:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Perovskite type (A2+B4+O2-3)
structures are significantly important host for rare earth (RE) doping because they offer promising luminescence properties for light emitting diode, field emission display and all solid compact laser devices. Eu(3+ doped BaZrO3 thin films with cubic structure were prepared on Si(100) substrates by...
Dr
Makhamisa Senekane
(Department of Physics and Electronics, National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho)
28/06/2018, 11:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Majorana fermions are particles which are their own antiparticles; hence they have zero charge. They are governed by non-Abelian statistics. For a Majorana fermionic operator &gamma, and the Hamiltonian of a system H, Majorana fermions satisfy fermionic anti-commutation relation (that is, for a pair of Majorana operators &gammai, &gammaj; {&gammai,...
Mr
Itegbeyogene Ezekiel
(University of KwaZulu-Natal)
28/06/2018, 12:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
The magnetic phase transitions for pure ceramic La0.67Sr0.33FexMn1-xO3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5) perovskites are investigated. The understanding of the magnetic interactions that occur in these perovskites manganite afford the opportunity to tune their properties for practical applications. The double exchange interactions in Mn3+-O-Mn4+ was found to be suppressed by the...
Dr
Rosinah Modiba
(CSIR)
28/06/2018, 12:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Computational modelling approach has been used to investigate the effect of hafnium and copper on the B2 TiPt shape memory alloys. The calculations were performed using the CASTEP code embedded in materials studio. Cubic B2 TiPt is known to be thermodynamically unstable at 0 K as compared to the B19 orthorhombic phase with it having the highest heats of formations and soft modes in the lowest...
Dr
Ganga Babu Geetha
(University of Johannesburg)
29/06/2018, 10:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Germanene is considered as a potential alternative to graphene and has technological potential owing to its unique electronic characteristics. The buckled structure of germanene, combined with strong spin-orbit coupling, is predicted to exhibit new topological phenomena such as the quantum spin Hall and anomalous Hall effects. Recent efforts have been directed to identify suitable substrates...
Dr
Xin Liang Yan
(Shantou university, China)
29/06/2018, 10:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Surface segregation in a thin film is different from that in a bulk system, due to the fact that the number of segregated atoms on the surface of the thin film is a significant fraction of the total number of atoms and resulted that the bulk concentration in the thin film is modified significantly upon segregation. In additional, significant differences in the surface segregation behavior, as...
Dr
Raesibe Sylvia Ledwaba
(University of Limpopo)
29/06/2018, 10:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Layered-spinel Li-Mn-O nanostructured materials have ignited significant interest as cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries due to their simultaneously great reversible capacity (302 mAh/g), amongst other exceptional properties. However, their high electrode surface area has lead to side reactions with the electrolyte resulting in capacity fade. As such, we employ molecular dynamics...
Dr
Peace Mkhonto
(University of Limpopo)
29/06/2018, 11:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
During flotation liberated particles are rendered hydrophobic by addition of organic collectors that will facilitate their attachment to air bubbles. This study employed both computational density functional theory and experimental microcalorimetry to investigate the heats of adsorption of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), 2-mercaptobenzoxazole (MBO) and 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) onto pyrite...
Dr
Deon Marais
(Necsa SOC Ltd)
29/06/2018, 11:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Phase quantification by means of neutron diffraction relies on the accurate measurement of Bragg peak intensities with respect to diffraction angle. When a neutron beam enters a sample under investigation, the beam is attenuated according to an exponential decay equation which is a function of the total distance that the beam has traversed the sample. As the total path length varies with...
Dr
Bertrand Sone
(Chemistry Department, University of the Free State,Bloemfontein)
29/06/2018, 12:00
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are highly ordered 3-dimensionally arranged crystalline hybrid materials containing both an inorganic and an organic component. Their base structure is comprised of metal ions or clusters (inorganic) that are connected by electron-donating “linker” groups (organic) to create a networked structure with periodically arranged rigid/semi-rigid pores. As a result of...
Mr
M M I Beriama
(UFS)
29/06/2018, 12:20
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Phosphor materials, which absorb energy and emit light, have numerous applications and continue to develop as technology progresses. Past studies have identified YPO4 as a suitable host material for luminescent rare earth ions. However, Bi ions also show luminescence in various regions of the spectrum depending on their valence state as well as the host material and are being...
Dr
Mmantsae Diale
(University of Pretoria)
29/06/2018, 12:40
Track A - Physics of Condensed Matter and Materials
Oral Presentation
Sustainable, renewable and clean solar energy collection has seen rapid progress in research where different electrodes have been explored. Among these, Hematite, a reddish-brown iron oxide has been found to possess remarkable credentials such as chemical stability, low cost and abundance for use as photoanodes. In addition its bandgap of 2.2 eV is perfect for solar energy collection. In this...
