Structural, magnetic and second harmonic generation properties in Mayan blue indigo nanostructured pigment

Abstract In this work, we report new results on magnetic and second harmonic generation properties found in Mayan Blue Indigo (MBI) synthetic nanostructured pigment. MBI pigment was synthesized by a conventional method. Magnetization values were found to be 6.968 × 10−2 emu/g and 18.91 × 10−2 emu/g at 300 K and 50 K, respectively. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectra indicates unpaired electron signal appearing at the g-value of 2.49 with a peak-to-peak line width of 2114 G. Second harmonic generation properties were found at 483 nm. MBI pigment was analyzed using various characterizations techniques. The nano-structure and chemical surface characterization were confirmed by techniques that included high resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The characterization results indicated, acicular nanostructures of ~1.14 nm, iron nanoparticles of ~1 nm, indigo molecule vibration mode at 632.52 cm−1, and binding energies corresponding to Fe (2s, 3s), O (1s, 2s), N (1s), C (1s), Si (2s, 2p), Al (2s, 2p), Mg (2s, 2p) related to the electronic structure of MBI nanostructured pigment.