Low-temperature preparation of lanthanum-doped BiFeO3 crystallites by a sol-gel-hydrothermal method

Multiferroic Bi1-xLaxFeO3 (BLFO, x = 0, 0.15, 0.3, 0.4) powders were for the first time synthesized by a novel sol-gel-hydrothermal route. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The XRD results indicated that pure BLFO crystallites could be obtained for x <= 0.3, and the phase purity was sensitive to the concentration of mineralizer. SEM results revealed that the morphology and dimension of the BLFO microspheres and submicrotiles could be effectively controlled by varying KOH concentrations. The formation mechanism of the BLFO crystalline was also discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.