Physical characteristics and magnetic properties of BaFe12O19/SrTiO3 based composites derived from mechanical alloying

Abstract

A composite system BaFe12O19/SrTiO3 with ferrimagnetic BaFe12O19 phase (BHF) and ferroelectric SrTiO3 phase (STO) have been prepared by mechanical alloying and subsequent heat treatment. The composite powders were studied by Particle Size Analyze, X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurement. It was found that the particle size of composite powders initially increased due to laminated layers formation of a composite and then decreased to an asymptotic value of ∼8 µm as the milling time extended even to a relatively longer time. However, based on results of line broadening analysis the mean grain size of the particles was found in the nanometer scale. We thus believed that mechanical blending and milling of mixture components for the composite materials has promoted heterogeneous nucleation and only after successive sintering at 1100°C the milled powder transformed into particles of nanograin. In this report, microstructure as well as magnetic properties for the composite is also briefly discussed.