Preparation and Investigations of the Magnetoelectric Properties of (Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4)x [(Na0.5Bi0.5)0.7Ba0.3TiO3]1-x (x = 0.3, 0.5) Nanocomposite Ceramics for Magnetic Field Sensor Applications Souvick Das, Anupam Banerjee, Nupur Bhakta, P. K. Chakrabarti ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2024 A multiferroic nanocomposite was derived by considering Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 (NZFO) and Ba-doped Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBBTO) as the constituent components. Nanoparticles of (Na0.5Bi0.5)0.7Ba0.3TiO3 synthesized by the sol–gel technique were successfully incorporated into NZFO during its preparation. For this experiment, two distinct stoichiometric ratios were taken: (NZFO)0.3(NBBTO)0.7 (NZFO-NBBTO-1) and (NZFO)0.5(NBBTO)0.5 (NZFO-NBBTO-2). The X-ray diffractograms were subjected to Rietveld refinement, confirming the desired phase formation without any impurity. Images captured by field-emission scanning electron microscopy showed that particles are uniformly scattered with distinct spherical morphology. The lack of impurity elements was verified by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), and EDAX mapping showed that the constituent elements were distributed uniformly. The magnetic moment variation from 300 to 50 K was analyzed to identify magnetic phases in the composites. The presence of nearly saturated loops was revealed in both composites by the zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetization data as a function of the temperature and magnetization versus field loops, as recorded by vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The maximum magnetization was observed to be 16.76 emu/g for NZFO-NBBTO-1 and 22.45 emu/g for NZFO-NBBTO-2 at 300 K. At 300 K, both composites exhibited good dielectric properties, with a dielectric strength of ∼320 and a low loss of ∼0.5. Direct observation of the ferroelectric loop indicated that NZFO-NBBTO-1 exhibited better ferroelectricity (Pmax ∼0.018 μc/cm2) compared to NZFO-NBBTO-2 (Pmax ∼0.01 μc/cm2). The magnetocapacitance coefficient was also higher in NZFO-NBBTO-1 (∼4%) than in NZFO-NBBTO-2 (∼3%). In general, the findings indicate that NZFO-NBBTO-1 shows great promise as a potential candidate for a magnetoelectric multiferroic material that could be used for the development of magnetic field sensors, spintronic devices, sensors, microelectronic devices, actuators, and electronic memory devices.
