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

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 H_c ∼ 10 Oe and M_r ∼ 0. These findings demonstrate their potential use not only as photocatalysts, but also as magnetic materials.