Investigations on the properties of pure and rare earth modified bismuth ferrite ceramics

Pure BiFeO3 (BFO) and La-modified BiFeO3 (Bi1-xLaxFeO3 with x = 0.2 and 0.4) ceramic powders were synthesized at relatively low temperature by ferrioxalate precursor method. Pure compositions did not yield phase pure powders and contain secondary phases. At the same time. La-modification at different concentration levels in BFO promoted the formation of perovskite phase with the elimination of secondary phases and phase pure ceramic powders were obtained for the composition Bi1-xLaxFeO3 with x = 0.4. Further, the effect of lanthanum substitution on the morphology, electrical and magnetic properties was also investigated. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.