Effect of annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) nanoparticle

Abstract In this article‚ bismuth ferrite nanoparticles (BiFeO3) were prepared by sol-gel method. To determine the sintering temperature range of bismuth ferrite nanoparticles, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) were performed on its dry gel. In order to improve structural and optical properties, samples sintered at temperatures of 600‚ 650,700,750, 800 and 850 °C. Then‚ structural and optical properties of the samples have been investigated of by X-ray diffraction (XRD)‚ Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR),Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM)‚ Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy analysis (UV-Vis) and Photoluminescence analysis (PL). The result of XRD and FT-IR analysis showed that samples have distorted perovskite structure. FESEM images indicated that by increasing sintering temperature‚ the size of nanoparticles increases. UV-Vis and PL analysis showed that samples are semiconductor and have an energy gap of about 2 (ev).