Observation of magnetoelectric effect in CuO-doped SrBi4Ti4O15 ceramics

•Room temperature multiferroicity was achieved in CuO doped SrBi4Ti4O15 lead-free ferroelectric ceramics.•Ferromagnetic hysteresis loops were observed in CuO doped SBT4 ceramics.•Magnetoelectric coupling effect was attributed due to feeble ME effect of CuO.•Strong magnetic super-exchange interaction of CuO played a significant role in achieving room temperature multiferroicity. Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling effect was observed in CuO-doped SrBi4Ti4O15 lead-free ferroelectric ceramics. Interstitial doping of CuO resulted in the formation of secondary phases at lower angles, which was confirmed from X-ray diffraction studies. Due to the strong magnetic superexchange interactions of CuO, weak room temperature ferromagnetic hysteresis curve was observed. The highest saturation magnetization of 1.61 memu/g and remnant polarization of 6.21 µC/cm2 was achieved for x = 1 mol% of CuO-doped ceramic. Further, the existence of weak magnetoelectric effect (χE = 0.1352 mVcm-1Oe-1) was also achieved. The obtained weak magnetoelectric effect is due to the presence of spontaneous magnetization and oxygen deficiency in the prepared samples.