Low-temperature acetone-assisted hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of BiFeO3 powders

Well-crystallized pure perovskite bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) powders have been synthesized by a facile hydrothermal route at the temperature as low as 130 A degrees C with the aid of acetone. In the synthesis, acetone played important roles in the low-temperature synthesis of pure BiFeO3. The as-prepared BiFeO3 powders mainly consisted of cubic particles with the size range from 50 to 200 nm. zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetization measurements indicated that pure BiFeO3 powders showed a spin-glass transition below the freezing temperature. The as-prepared pure BiFeO3 powders showed weak ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity simultaneously at room temperature. Moreover, the bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 exhibit efficient photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation.