Prospect and Barrier of Multiferroic Bismuth Ferrite for Application in Solar Cell

In this paper, we synthesized bismuth ferrite (BiFeO
₃
) nanoparticles by sol-gel technique and then annealed at 600
⁰
C for well crystallinity. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis demonstrated rhombohedral crystal structure with R3c lattice space group and obtained the crystallite size of 68 nm and lattice strain of 0.186 %. The bond angle and bond length of BiFeO
₃
nanoparticles were measured from the crystallographic information file. The Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) showed uniform distribution of particles with spherical shape. The average grain size of 168 nm was also estimated from FESEM image. Energy dispersive spectroscopy showed the existence and atomic % of Bismuth (Bi), Iron (Fe) and Oxygen (O) elements in BiFeO
₃
. The bandgap energy (E
_g
) of BiFeO
₃
nanoparticles were calculated and found to 2.05 eV which is prospective candidate for its application in photovoltaic solar cells.