Electrical and magnetic properties of the BF–PFN solid solutions obtained by spark plasma sintering method

•Three ferroelectromagnetic BF−PFN materials were prepared using the combined technological process, i.e., synthesis by calcination route and sintering SPS method.•SPS process improve the sinterability of the ceramics, makes it easier set in order the microstructure and increases density, so that their immunity to electric breakdown is higher.•At room temperature the BF−PFN materials have both, electrical and magnetic properties.•The SPS method reduces the time and temperature of the technological process and improves the set of useful parameters of the BF–PFN. The paper presents the results of electrophysical tests of (1–x)BiFeO3-(x)PbFe1/2Nb1/2O3 (BF-PFN) solid solutions obtained by a combined technological process, i.e., calcination powders and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The structure, electric and magnetic properties, were performed for three BF-PFN samples (x = 0.4, 0.3, 0.2). A thorough analysis of Rietveld showed that all BF-PFN materials show perovskite structure with the coexistence of the main phases. The microstructure of the BF-PFN is of high quality, as well as dense, with well-developed grains and low porosity (improving the sinterability of the ceramic material), which shall be beneficial to the dielectric properties of the BF-PFN materials. At room temperature, the BF-PFN has both electrical and magnetic properties with medium values of permittivity (292 ÷ 1022), small dielectric loss tangent (0.032 ÷ 0.072) and high resistivity (1.2 ÷ 2.6 × 108 Ωm). At high temperatures, the BF-PFN samples reveal extremely high permittivity values, while the magnetic properties depend on the concentration of the PFN component.