The hydrothermal synthesis and formation mechanism of single-crystalline perovskite BiFeO3 microplates with dominant (012) facets

A facile hydrothermal method has been developed to prepare single-crystal BiFeO3 (BFO) microplates, where the raw material (C6H10BiNO8) was used both as a reactant and a surface modifier. The as-synthesised BFO microplates were dominated by (012) facets with the lateral length of 8 mu m and thickness of 510-550 mu m. The results of XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM and FT-IR indicate that the adsorption behaviour of the organic ligands could play a key role in the formation of the BFO microplates. Moreover, the dielectric constant of the BFO-PVDF film is much higher than the pure BFO at room temperature. The specially chosen raw material (C6H10BiNO8) and the proposed formation mechanism of the BFO microplates could be extended to tailor the crystal growth of the 2D structures of other perovskite oxides.