Crystal growth and spectroscopic studies of new ammonium potassium zinc sulfate hexahydrate single crystal

Single crystal of ammonium potassium zinc sulfate hexahydrate hereafter (AKZSH) was successfully grown by the slow evaporation technique. The crystal structure was calculated for the as-grown crystal using single crystal diffraction, yet the crystal structure was confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction and the pattern was found to be an intermediate phase between ammonium zinc sulfate hexahydrate and potassium zinc sulfate hexahydrate single crystals. The UV–vis study shows that the crystal has good transparency in the visible light region. Optical energy gap was deduced from Tauc's plot and it was found to be 4.657 eV. The dispersion of the refractive index is analyzed using Cauchy's and Wemple-DiDomenico models. Various optical constants were calculated for the grown crystal. Spectral analysis was performed using FTIR and Raman spectroscopy to study the vibrational bands of AKZSH crystal. The confirmation of the exact chemical formula for the single crystal was checked by thermal analysis and atomic absorption spectroscopy to calculate the substitution ratio of ions and the ratio of water molecules in the structure.