Structural, Magnetic, and Electrical Properties of (1-x) Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 –(x) NiFe 2 O 4 (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9) Multiferroic Particulate Composite

Multiferroic composites consisting of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3(NBT) and NiFe2O4(NFO) phases have been synthesized by using sol-gel and metal-organic decomposition (MOD) methods. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results confirm NBT and NFO phase formation in all composite samples without the presence of any intermediate phases. The phonon vibrational modes of the composite samples are detected by Raman spectroscopy over wavenumber regions from 100 to 1000 cm−1 at room temperature. The dielectric constant and dielectric losses are measured over a wide range of frequencies from 1 kHz to 1 MHz at room temperature. Room temperature magnetization measurements confirm the ferromagnetic behavior of all the composite samples. The observed values of coercivity are significantly lower and lie between 9.5 and 49 Oe only, which signifies the soft magnetic behavior of samples. The highest leakage current density value (3.39 × 10−6) has been observed for 50NBT-50NFO composite in I–V measurements. The present study reveals that NBT-NFO composites could be potential lead-free multiferroic composites and provide an alternative for designing environment-friendly devices.