Low-temperature sintering synthesis and electromagnetic properties of NiCuZn/BaTiO3 composite materials

Abstract

In this study, various amounts of BaTiO3 ceramics (BTO) were introduced into Ni0.15Cu0.24Zn0.61Fe2O4 (NCZF) via solid-state reaction method and sintered at 920 °C with 2 wt% Bi2O3 addition. Obviously, the magnetic properties were affected violently but dielectric behaviors were improved, and the variations showed great regularity. We obtained composite materials with well magnetic and dielectric properties which can meet different design requirements of devices. To be specific, phase distribution and composition, microstructure morphology, magnetic and dielectric properties of these composites were systematically investigated via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and impedentiometry. XRD analysis results proved that the biphase (ferrite phase and ceramic phase) was produced successfully, whereas SEM micrographs revealed that grain size decreased with the content of BTO ceramic. Magnetic properties, such as saturation magnetization (4πMs), coercivity (Hc), permeability (μ′), and quality factor (Q) can vary with the amount of BTO ceramics. By adding BTO to NCZF, electrical properties, such as dielectric constant (ε′) and dielectric loss (tan δ) were remarkably improved. Indeed, when the content of BTO ceramics varied from 5 wt% to 10 wt%, so-prepared composites possess outstanding electromagnetic properties (μ′ > 50.5, Q > 60, ε′ ≈ 23.8, tan δ < 4.76 × 10−4). Therefore, these materials can be further exploited for the development of advanced integration, miniaturized, and multifunctional information system.