Direct mechanosynthesis of pure BiFeO3 perovskite nanoparticles: reaction mechanism.

In this work, a mechanochemical procedure is proposed as a simple and fast method to synthesize pure BiFeO3 perovskite phase as a nanostructured material without the need for purification treatments, while the mechanochemical reaction mechanism has been investigated and correlated with that of the conventional solid-state reaction. Thus, different milling conditions have been used as a tool for tailoring 10 the crystallite size of the resulting BiFeO3 nanoparticles. The materials prepared by mechanochemical reaction could be annealed or sintered without the formation of unwilling phases. Both the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic transitions were observed by DSC. Finally, the dielectric constants at different frequencies as a function of the temperature for the prepared material have been measured, showing that the material is clearly an isolator below 200ºC, characteristic of a high quality BiFeO3 material.1