Ultra-thin BiFeO3 nanowires prepared by a sol–gel combustion method: an investigation of its multiferroic and optical properties

Abstract

Perovskite-type polycrystalline BiFeO3 nanowires, with 150 nm in length and 10 nm in diameter, were synthesized using a sol–gel combustion method at a relative low reactive temperature. The BiFeO3 nanowires exhibit a remarkably high saturation magnetization of 4.22 emu/g finite coercivity (177 Oe), and a enhanced Mr/Ms value about 0.22, which is independent on the synthesize temperature. The permittivity constant (e′) and dielectric loss (0.01 at 0.4 MHz) of BiFeO3 nanowires are very low as compared to reported BiFeO3 bulk and film. In addition, BiFeO3 nanowires reveal a wide band gap of 2.5 eV measured from the UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectrum, which may be useful as a photoelectrode material and photocatalytic decomposition of contamination.