Structure and magnetic/electrochemical properties of Cu-doped BiFeO 3 nanoparticles prepared by a simple solution method

BiFe 1− x Cu x O 3 ( x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) nanoparticles were prepared by a simple solution method. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method analysis using the Barret–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) model, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Magnetization properties were obtained using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. Magnetization was clearly enhanced by increasing Cu content and decreasing particle size. Zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) temperature-dependent magnetization measurements showed that blocking temperature increased with increasing Cu content. Electrochemical properties were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and the galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) method. The performance of the fabricated supercapacitor was improved for the BiFe 0.95 Cu 0.05 O 3 electrode. The highest specific capacitance was 568.13 F g −1 at 1 A g −1 and the capacity retention was 77.13% after 500 cycles.