Sol-Gel-Prepared Nanoparticles of Mixed Praseodymium Cobaltites-Ferrites

Two series of nanocrystalline powders of PrCo1 - x Fe x O3 (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9) of high purity were obtained by sol-gel citrate method at 700 and 800 °C. The formation of continuous solid solution with an orthorhombic perovskite structure (sp. group Pbnm) was observed. A peculiarity of the PrCo1 - x Fe x O3 solid solution is the lattice parameter crossovers, which occurred at certain compositions and revealed in the pseudo-tetragonal or pseudo-cubic metric. An average crystallite size of the PrCo1 - x Fe x O3 samples estimated from the analysis of the angular dependence of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) line broadening varies between 30 and 155 nm, depending on the composition and synthesis temperature.