Enhancement of magnetic and dielectric properties in (1-x).BEFO+ x.NZF nano composites

Nanostructured Bi0.9Eu0.1FeO3 (BEFO), Ni0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4 (NZF), and (1-x).BEFO + x.NZF composites have been synthesized by traditional solid state reaction process with several dispersion techniques, where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0. X-ray diffraction confirms the perovskite, cubic, and mixed perovskite-spinel phase formation of BEFO, NZF, and (1-x).BEFO + x.NZF composites respectively. FESEM and EDX analysis confirm the nano grain size and compositional purity of the samples. The effect of sintering temperature (TS) on grain growth was studied at 600 degrees C and 850 degrees C, where the range of the average grain size is between (90-131) nm and (157-272) nm. The magnetic hysteresis loop properties of all the samples were measured by VSM, where the saturation magnetization (MS) of BEFO increased from 10.31 emu/g to 50.54 emu/g with increasing NZF content. The increment of NZF content also modified other magnetic properties of (1-x).BEFO + x.NZF composites such as coercive force (HC), retentivity (Mr), magnetic moment (nB), and anisotropy constant (K). The frequency dependent permeability measurements show that the initial permeability (mu') was stable in a long frequency range up to 108 Hz and that the magnetic loss tangent (tan delta M) decreased with increasing NZF content. The dielectric characteristics and AC resistivity of the composites were measured by an impedance analyzer over a wide frequency range (1 Hz-100 MHz). All the dielectric properties of the synthesized samples show excellent stability up to a long frequency region and vary sharply with increasing NZF content. From the optimization, 0.9 BEFO + 0.1 NZF composite has the highest permeability and dielectric values with the least amount of dielectric and magnetic losses. All the investigated composites might be strong candidates as multiferroic materials with strong magnetic and electric characteristics.