Effect of grain size on the dielectric and magnetic properties of YFeO3 ceramics densified by microwave sintering and spark plasma sintering from powders synthesized via reverse chemical co-precipitation

Abstract

YFeO3 (YFO) ceramics were synthesized by reverse co-precipitation at different pH values followed by microwave sintering (MS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) techniques. Also, the effect of the grain size on the magnetic and dielectric properties of the sintered ceramics was examined using various characterization methods. Moreover, FESEM micrographs showed that the particle size of the calcined samples has declined by increasing the pH value. Furthermore, the magnetization curves exhibited weak ferromagnetic behavior in the pre-sintered powder samples. Besides, the Ms value was enhanced from 1.26emu/g to 2.3emu/g by an increase in pH from 8.5 to 10.5 owing to reducing the particle size and subsequently raising the amount of uncompensated surface spins. Furthermore, the powder samples showed an increase in the Hc and Mr values from 15Oe to 28Oe and 0.127emu/g to 0.296emu/g, respectively, with a reduction in particle size from 0.632μm to 0.272μm. Additionally, the specimens processed through the sintering techniques demonstrated a remarkable reduction in magnetic characteristics. Therefore, a decrease in magnetic saturation values from 2.3emu/g to 0.43emu/g for the MS sample and to 0.17emu/g for the SPS specimen was attributed to a marked reduction in the amount of free surfaces and subsequently uncompensated surface spins. At last, the observed dielectric characteristics of all the sintered pellets had a common dielectric behavior. This signifies that by increasing the frequency the and tanδ decline at lower frequencies and become frequency-independent at higher frequencies based upon the Maxwell-Wagner polarization theory. On the other hand, the value for the SPS sample produced at pH=10.5 underwent a decline of 2.5 times at the low frequency of 200Hz compared to the MS one due to the significant decrement of the grain boundaries on account of the coarsening of grains.