Tailoring the morphology and size of perovskite BiFeO3 nanostructures for enhanced magnetic and electrical properties

Multiferroics with desirable properties are motivated to perceive the potential applications which can be effectively produced by controlling their microstructure. A detailed study has been carried out for the significance of morphology on the physical and chemical properties of perovskite nanostructures considering bismuth ferrite as the model system. Structure and phase identification performed with X-ray powder diffraction confirms the formation of single phase rhombohedral BiFeO3 for all the nanostructures. The microstructural-evolution of the nanostructures under various synthesize conditions have been identified to be flakes, cubes, rods, and flowers, from scanning electron microscopic images. These nanostructures with different morphologies and sizes exhibit ferromagnetic behavior confirmed using vibrating sample magnetometry. The observed room temperature electrical properties were correlated with their microstructures and the activation energy estimated from the impedance data is found to be high for BiFeO3 nanorods having 1.20 eV, which seems to have better performance than the other morphologies. The excellent union of magnetic and electrical properties of nanostructured BiFeO3 provides new possibilities of its use in device applications.