Novel insights into the multiferroicity and magneto-dielectricity of 0.9BaTiO3–0.1CoFe2O4 composites: a two-step sintering perspective
摘要
This research aims to investigate and compare the effect of conventional sintering and two-step sintering (TSS) techniques on the microstructural, structural, dielectric, multiferroic, and magnetodielectric (MD) properties of 0.9BaTiO3 (BTO)–0.1CoFe2O4 (CFO) composites and their pure constituents. By incorporating the CFO into the matrix, the BTO’s tetragonality factor diminished while its unit cell expanded. Among the composites, the TSS1 (sintering program: 1400 °C for 1 min, followed by 1300 °C for 20 h) indicated the greatest dielectric (dielectric constant of ~ 1721 and dielectric tangent loss of ~ 0.147) and ferroelectric properties (saturation polarization of ~ 12.57 µC/cm2 and remanent polarization of ~ 10.51 µC/cm2) due to its highest relative density (95%). The saturation and remanent magnetizations of the composites were in the same range (~ 4.3 and ~ 0.5 emu/g, respectively) due to their chemical composition-dependent character. Moreover, the coercivity was diminished by increasing the relative density, as it is affected by the microstructure. Finally, the largest MD coefficient (~ 2.5%) was acquired for the TSS1 composite at 7 kOe.
Graphical abstract