Enhancement of dielectric, ferromagnetic and electrochemical properties of BiFeO3 nanostructured films through rare earth metal doping

Abstract In this present work first assessment of enhanced electrochemical properties of Bismuth Ferrite (BiFeO3)thin films through Samarium(Sm) doping are delivered. Apart from this enhancement of structural, dielectric and magnetic properties with increasing samarium concentration is discussed. The pure phase BiFeO3 films and Sm-doped BiFeO3(Bi1-xSmxFeO3 where x = 0.05 & x = 0.1) films were synthesized using 2methoxy aided sol-gel process and were deposited on platinum substrates through spin coating technique. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of pure phase BiFeO3 with Rhombohedral (R3c) structure. Morphological characterization through SEM presented the formation of nanostructures and its structural transformation through doping variant. AFM confirmed the smoothness of the film with a maximum grain size of 172.72 nm for the measured films. The elemental analysis and elemental purity was confirmed through EDAX. Mechanistic aspects of the prepared films were analyzed through Thermogravimetric, Differential Thermal Analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. The variation of dielectric constant with frequency was measured until 1 MHz and remains almost constant due to the independent nature of polarization with frequency. The magnetic coercivity of the film improved from 77.7G to 240G with samarium doping. The Bi0.9Sm0.1FeO3 films deposited on platinum substrates enhanced the specific capacity to about 184Fg-1 along with its retention capability enabling it to be used as electrode material for supercapacitors.