Crystal structure, optical and magnetic properties of PrFeO3 nanoparticles prepared by modified co-precipitation method

Abstract

In this work, PrFeO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by modified co-precipitation method and annealed at different temperatures up to 850 °C. The annealed PrFeO3 nanoparticles have single phase orthorhombic structure and the average particle size of 25–30 nm. Due to the very small particle size the prepared PrFeO3 nanoparticles are capable of being used as photocatalyst materials thanks to their strong adsorption bands at 230–400 nm and 400–800 nm observed from the UV-Vis spectra. Additionally, the PrFeO3 nanoparticles are paramagnetic materials with Hc ∼ 10 Oe and Mr ∼ 0. These findings demonstrate their potential use not only as photocatalysts, but also as magnetic materials.