Microwave-Hydrothermal Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Multiferroic Bismuth Ferrite Nanostructures

Abstract

We report on the synthesis and structural characterization of bismuth ferrite multiferroic nanostructures, which were synthesized via microwave-hydrothermal method with a bismuth nitrate/iron nitrate mixture under alkaline conditions. Both BiFeO₃ (BFO) nanocrystallites with spherical and rectangle-like morphologies and Bi₂Fe₄O₉ nanowires were synthesized by microwave-hydrothermal process, and their nanoscale structural motifs were revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that BFO nanocrystallites with rectangle-like morphology had an average width of 140 nm and length of 205 nm, and the long side grew along the [100] direction, whereas the BFO nanoparticles with spherical morphology had a particle size in the range of 15–55 nm, and nearly monodispersive behavior was observed in these nanoparticles. The synthesized Bi₂Fe₄O₉ nanowires growing along the [001] direction had a diameter of 40 nm and length up to about 0.5 μm.

Keywords:

• Bismuth ferrite multiferroic nanostructures
• microwave-hydrothermal process
• structural characterization

Acknowledgment

This work is financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Project No. BK2007130), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10874065), key projects from Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant Nos. 2009CB929503 and 2009ZX02101-4), the project sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, and National Found for Fostering Talents of Basic Science (NFFTBS) (Project No. J0630316).