Chemical Synthesis and Characterization of Perovskite NdfeO3 Nanocrystals via a Co-Precipitation Method

A facile co-precipitation method for the synthesis of well-dispersed NdFeO3 nanocrystals is developed in the presence of octanoic acid as surfactant. Co-precipitation can produce fine, high-purity, stoichiometric particles of single and multicomponent metal oxides. The product is characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). The XRD analysis shows only the pattern corresponding to perovskitetype NdFeO3 which crystallizes in the orthorhombic system. The spherical NdFeO3 nanocrystals with an average particle size of about 69 nm can be obtained at a relatively high calcining temperature of 800°C.  Also, sphere-like NdFeO3 nanocrystals obtained by this method are uniform in both morphology and particle size. The results indicate that the amount of surfactant, pH and rate of stirring have an important role in the homogeneity and size of product. The preparation process can be also applied to synthesize other metal oxides.