Rapid synthesis of pure phase bismuth ferrite through modified sol-gel auto-ignition method: Impact of different chelating agents

Abstract

Pure phase bismuth ferrite has been successfully prepared in this research using a modified method of sol-gel auto-ignition. This method is a fast and economical synthesis technique since it can produce fine as-synthesis powder for less than 4 hours. Also, the influences of diverse chelating agents on the physicochemical properties of the synthesized samples were examined using various characterization techniques. XRD revealed that pure bismuth ferrite nanoparticles with rhombohedral perovskite structure were produced by using ascorbic acid (AA) as a chelating agent. From the UV spectra, a blue shift observed in the presence of AA and citric acid (CA). Moreover, the specific surface area of the as-prepared BFO-EDTA, BFO-AA and BFO-CA samples was 1.694, 1.134 and 1.627 m2/g, respectively, consistent with the XRD findings. Raman analysis shows that the synthesized BFO samples exhibit 4 A1 and 8E modes confirming Rhombohedral R3c geometry of bismuth ferrite nanoparticles. Finally, FTIR spectra depicted three absorption peaks at 410, 450, and 548 cm−1 corresponding to Fe−O stretching and bending, respectively, which is a characteristic of FeO6 octahedral in perovskite. The findings of this study would assist the researcher in the selection of chelating agents in the auto-combustion method for the processing of nanoparticles for particular applications.