Synthesis of metastable rare-earth–iron mixed oxide with the hexagonal crystal structure

Rare-earth–iron mixed oxides with the rare earth/iron ratio=1 have either orthorhombic (o-REFeO3) or hexagonal (h-REFeO3) structure. h-REFeO3 is a metastable phase and the synthesis of h-REFeO3 is usually difficult. In this work, the crystallization process of the precursors obtained by co-precipitation and Pechini methods was investigated in detail to synthesize h-REFeO3. It was found that the crystallization from amorphous to hexagonal phase and the phase transition from hexagonal to orthorhombic phase occurred at a similar temperature range for rare earth elements with small ionic radii (Er–Lu, Y). For both co-precipitation and Pechini methods, single-phase h-REFeO3 was obtained by shortening the heating time during calcination process. The hexagonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition took place by a nucleation growth mechanism and vermicular morphology of the thus-formed orthorhombic phase was observed. The hexagonal YbFeO3 had higher catalytic activity for C3H8 combustion than orthorhombic YbFeO3.