Morphology and electrical conductivity of copper(II) 4-fluorobenzoate

Copper(II) 4-fluorobenzoate (CFB), prepared from copper(II) acetate monohydrate and 4-fluorobenzoic acid, is a blue powder. The Fourier transform infrared spectrum of CFB, recorded as potassium bromide disc, indicates the presence of all bonds and functional groups expected of it. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicates that CFB is polycrystalline. The highest diffraction peak occurs at interplanar distance of 15.2 Å, which corresponds to particle size of 450 Å. Scanning electron microscopy of CFB shows that it has a layered structure. CFB conductivity at room temperature is 1.79×10^-11 Scm^-1. The value decreases as temperature increases in the temperature range 30-350 K, indicating metallic behaviour. The conduction mechanism obeys Mott´s variable range hopping (VRH) model in the temperature range 140-350 K. The density of states at Fermi level based on the VRH model is 2.9×10²⁶ eV^-1 cm ^-3. The hopping distance, hopping energy and density of charge carriers at 300 K are 0.73 Å, 0.002 eV and 7.53×10 ²⁴ cm^-3, respectively