Preparation and characterization of BiFeO3 ceramic

From the technological point of view, the mutual control of electric and magnetic properties is an attractive possibility, but the number of candidate materials is limited. One of them, BiFeO3, has critical conditions for synthesizing single phase since the temperature stability range of the phase is very narrow. Hence, various aspects of BiFeO3 system have to be studied.Fine particles of BiFeO3 are obtained using a wet chemical route (combustion technique) and compared with the same product prepared by classic solid state reaction. The sintering programs have been varied in order to investigate the mechanism reactions and to show the relation between the microstructures and the magnetoelectric behavior.The samples are characterized by using various techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD) study is carried out for phase determination and lattice parameter calculations; scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) and TEM to find out grain size and morphology; differential thermal analysis (DTA) to determine transformations of the starting materials. The obtained bulk materials were characterized (density, porosity, etc.) and correlated with the phase composition present in the samples. Electric and magnetic properties were evaluated.This study underlines the role of the preparation route on the structural and morphological characteristic of the obtained materials and their influence on the magnetoelectric behavior.