Making room-temperature ferromagnetism in lead-free ferroelectric Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 material

We have successfully fabricated Mn-doped wide band gap lead-free ferroelectric Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 by sol-gel technique. The band gap reduced from 3.12 to 1.71eV as increasing doping Mn concentration level up to 9mol%. The room temperature ferromagnetism in Mn-doped Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 samples was observed. The magnetic moment was around 2.69μB/Mn at 5K. We expected that this work will open the new direction for advance function of lead-free ferroelectric materials. [Display omitted] •The pure and Mn-doped Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 nanopowders were synthesized by sol–gel method.•Mn-doped Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 exhibited room temperature ferromagnetism.•The reduction of band gap from 3.12 to 1.71eV was obtained.•A new function of lead-free ferroelectric materials is proposed.