The synthesis of Ba2+ doped multiferroic BiFeO3 nanoparticles by using a hydrothermal approach in the presence of different surface activators and the investigation of structural and magnetic features

Abstract

In this work, Bi1−xBaxFeO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by a hydrothermal method in the presence of various surface activators, and different amounts of barium were inserted in a bismuth ferrite (x = 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) structure instead of bismuth. The structural and magnetic properties, morphology, and size of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, DLS and VSM. The XRD analysis results reveal that the synthetic nanoparticles have a single phase. A phase shift from a rhombohedral structure to a tetragonal structure occurs due to the enhanced barium amount in the bismuth ferrite structure. The SEM analysis exhibits a uniform shape of the Bi0.85Ba0.15FeO3 particles and the image observed by TEM clarifies the size of the particles as 11 nm. Furthermore, the effect of the diverse surfaces of activators in the synthesis of Bi0.85Ba0.15FeO3 nanoparticles was studied, revealing that when sugar was used as a surfactant, the particle size reduced and the magnetic properties increased notably.