Tailoring the structural, optical and magnetic properties of BiFeO3 multiferroic nanoparticles by Ba, Cr co-doping

• Published in: Materials science & engineering. B, Solid-state materials for advanced technology Vol. 241; pp. 48 - 54
• Main Authors: Puhan, A., Bhushan, B., Kumar, V., Panda, H.S., Priyam, A., Das, D., Rout, D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.02.2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Bismuth ferrite; co-doping; Cobalt; Ferromagnetism; Hysteresis loops; Iron; Iron 57; Magnetic properties; Magnetic saturation; Mossbauer spectroscopy; Multiferroic; Nanoparticles; Optical properties; Sol-gel processes; X-ray diffraction; co-doping; Optical properties; Multiferroic; Magnetic properties
• ISSN: 0921-5107; 1873-4944
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mseb.2019.02.009

•Synthesis of Ba and Cr co-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles by a facile Sol-gel route.•A structural phase change from rhombohedral to tetragonal at higher Cr content.•Shifting of absorption peak by 100 nm towards lower value in UV–visible spectra.•Three times increase of saturation magnetization after Cr doping. Phase pure BiFeO3 (BFO) and Bi0.98Ba0.02Fe1-xCrxO3 (x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04) nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile sol-gel route. X-ray diffraction data confirms rhombohedral R3c phase of BFO and Ba, Cr co-doped BFO nanoparticles with a slight distortion at higher dopant concentration. TEM images verified the higher crystallinity of the samples with a significant reduction in particle size (∼40 nm) with increasing Cr concentration. The band gap of pristine BFO nanoparticles was found to be 1.8 eV which increases remarkably to a maximum of 2.32 eV for Ba, Cr co-doped BFO nanoparticles. 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy confirmed that no mixed valance state of Fe was present in the Ba, Cr co-doped BFO nanoparticles. Hysteresis loops of all the samples revealed the weak ferromagnetic nature of the co-doped BFO nanoparticles. It was observed that the saturation magnetization increased by more than 3 times when Cr content was increased from 1% to 4%.