Abstract

• LaFeO3 is one of the perovskite structure materials and its optical, electrical and magnetic properties had been frequently investigated. In the present work, nanoparticles of pure LaFeO3 was prepared using the citrate sol-gel method. Sr2+ ion doped LaFeO3 or La0.8Sr0.2FeO3 was also synthesized by the same method to study the enhancement of the structural and optical properties. The synthesis involved the sol-gel method, followed by gradual heat treatment for the combustion of organic substances. The resulting powders were characterized by several techniques such as X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy to study structure, morphology and the average particle size, phase, and composition. Optical properties were investigated by using the Tauc plot methodology. The optical band gap values were evaluated by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy measurements. The calculated optical band gap were found to be 2.20 eV, 2.37 eV for x = 0.00 and 0.2, respectively. The obtained results show that the structural, morphological and optical properties have affected by the substitution of Sr2+ on La3+ ion in the crystal lattice of LaFeO3.