Tunable morphology and optical absorption of bismuth ferrite synthesized by sol-gel-hydrothermal method

Bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 (BFO) powders with various morphologies were successfully prepared via a sol-gel-hydrothermal synthesis process. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Microspheres and microcubes were obtained as Bi-Fe-glycerol sol was used as precursor, and submicrometer-sized particles could be prepared by using Bi-Fe-glycerol gel. Possible formation mechanism of BFO microcrystals was proposed in this work. Moreover, the results of UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy reveal that BFO powders can be used as an effective photocatalyst under visible light in addition to its ferroelectric and magnetic applications.