Size effect on the magnetic properties of oleic acid stabilized substrate free BiFeO₃ nanocrystals.

Mahesh, Dabbugalla; Mahato, Bipul K.; Barman, Anjan; Mandal, Swapan K.

We report here on the unique synthesis of BiFeO3 (BFO) nanocrystals of different size by using oleic acid as a capping agent and investigate the structural and magnetic properties. Oleic acid is found to be a good stabilizing agent to obtain different crystal size and distributions of BFO nanocrystals. Structural characterizations by X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveal the phase purity of all the samples. The BFO nanocrystals display strong size dependent magnetic properties showing increase in both magnetization (Ms) as well as in coercive field (Hc) with decreasing the crystal size due to the size confinement effect as well as change in magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The smallest BFO nanocrystal of size ~12 nm shows remarkably high (8.17 emu/g) magnetization value compared to previous reports. The results obtained here will be of immense important for advanced applications in electromagnetic devices.

FERRITES; NANOCRYSTALS; OLEIC acid; X-ray diffraction; ELECTROMAGNETISM

European Physical Journal - Applied Physics, 2015, Vol 70, Issue 1, p10601-p1

1286-0042

Academic Journal

10.1051/epjap/2015150002