Synthesis and Characterization of Bismuth fer...

Synthesis and Characterization of Bismuth ferrite Nanoparticles prepared by sol-gel method

Author Name : N. Sivasankari, T. Saranya, Dr. M. Balakrishnan, K. Nishanthi

ABSTRACT

In the present work, Nanoparticles (NPs) of multiferroic bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3 ) were synthesized via a wet chemical route using bismuth nitrate and iron nitrate as starting materials and excess citric acid as chelating agent, respectively, followed by thermal treatment at 350∘C, 450∘C and 550∘C. It was found that BiFeO3 nanoparticles crystallized at 350∘C when using citric acid as chelating agent. BiFeO3 nanoparticles with different sizes distributions show obvious ferromagnetic properties, and the magnetization is increased with reducing the particle size. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction of powder (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) for extracting their surface morphology and their crystallographic structure. The surface morphology studies confirm the growth of bismuth ferrite nanoparticles with their diameters in the range of 200nm to 500nm. The XRD analysis concludes the rhombocentered structure of synthesized nanoparticles.