Abstract
Doped LaFeO3 materials are of high utility for energy storage devices and gas sensors. This work explores the effect of particles size and the preparation method on the physico-chemical properties of the (La0.8Ca0.2)(0.6)Bi0.4FeO3 compound. Accordingly, it was prepared by the Sol-Gel (LCBFO-SG) and the solid-state (LCBFO-SS) reaction methods. According to the Rietveld method, the adjusted XRD data confirm the distorted orthorhombic phase for both compounds. For both samples, the giant dielectric constant and the low loss tangent showed two relaxation processes at high- (grains boundary) and low-temperature regions (grains). The Havriliak-Negami ana Bergman formalism, used to adjust the imaginary part of dielectric Modulus, confirmed a non-Debye dielectric process. For both compounds, the conduction mechanism is ascribed to the non-Overlapping Small Polaron hopping between iron states. Importantly, Gas-sensing tests revealed that the LCBFO-SG nanoparticles exhibited higher response values and fast response/recovery times to ethanol, acetone, and H2S gases which is correlated with its lowest particles size. These results confirm that the LCBFO-SG could be an effective candidate for multi-gas sensors.