A comparative study of the optical, magnetic and electrocatalytic properties of nano BiFeO3 with different morphologies

Nano BiFeO3 (BFO) with three different morphologies was successfully synthesized by different synthesis routes. Platelet-like BFO with antiferromagnetic behavior was synthesized by hydrothermal (HT) method. BFO nanoparticles and irregularly shaped BFO aggregation were synthesized by microwave-assisted sol-gel (MSG) method within citric acid (CA) and ammonia aqueous (NH3 center dot H2O) solution, respectively. Both exhibited weak magnetism. Meanwhile, irregularly shaped BFO aggregation revealed relatively narrow band gap energy. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were applied to investigate the electrochemistry performance of BFO-chitosan-glassy carbon (BFO-CS-GCE) modified electrode. It was found that BFO nanoparticles possessed the highest electrocatalytic activity and potential application for electrochemical analysis. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.