Exploring the structural, morphological, and multiferroic properties of Al3+ modified (1-x) BCZT-(x) CFO ceramic composites

Multiferroics with strong magnetoelectric coupling can be created by improving the magnetostriction of the ferrite phase and combining it with the best known piezoelectric. Herein, the ferromagnetic CoFe2O4 was modified with Al3+ ions (CAF) to further improve the resistivity, magnetic, and magnetostrictive properties and then combined with (0.5)Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3−(0.5)(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3(BCZT) with different weight percentages. XRD results revealed the presence of a mixed spinel cubic phase for CAF (Fd-3m), whereas BCZT crystallized in a tetragonal structure (Amm2) in composite systems. Composites exhibited well-developed hysteresis loops with no feature of leakage current and dielectric response was consistent with ferroelectric properties. The magnetic response of CAF sample improved significantly which is attributed to preference of Al3+ ions on tetrahedral sites. The magnetization of composites increased as the nonmagnetic BCZT component increased and (0.75)CAF-(0.25)BCZT system had the highest saturation magnetization. We anticipate that these systems will have significantly improved magnetoelectric characteristics than unmodified CF-BCZT system.