Hydrothermal Synthesis, Phase Analysis, and Magneto-Electronic Characterizations of Lead-Free Ferroelectric BM2+(Zn, Ca, Mg)T-BFO System

K Monower Hossain; M H Kabir Rubel; M Khalid Hossain; G F Ishraque Toki; Latha Marasamy; Rajesh Haldhar; Md Hasan Ali; Smriti Baruah; Asma A Alothman; Saikh Mohammad

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c08072

Hydrothermal Synthesis, Phase Analysis, and Magneto-Electronic Characterizations of Lead-Free Ferroelectric BM²⁺(Zn, Ca, Mg)T-BFO System

ACS Omega. 2024 Feb 19;9(8):9147-9160. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c08072. eCollection 2024 Feb 27.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh.
² Institute of Electronics, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka 1349, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Advanced Energy Engineering Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan.
⁴ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
⁵ Facultad de Química, Materiales-Energía, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro C.P.76010, Mexico.
⁶ School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur 5400, Bangladesh.
⁸ Department of ECE, Madanapalle Institute of Technology & Science, Madanapalle 517325, India.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this study, lead-free BiM²⁺(Zn, Ca, Mg)Ti-BiFeO₃ ceramics are fabricated under eco-friendly hydrothermal reaction conditions at 250 °C. XRD patterns show that all the synthesized compounds exhibit a phase coexistence of monoclinic and tetragonal perovskite-type structures with a morphotropic phase boundary at x = 0.4, with minimum impurity. The calculated average crystallite/grain size of the samples was close to 50 nm at full width at half-maximum of the main peak. The corresponding bonds of the constituent elements were observed by FTIR analysis, which further supports the formation of the local structure. EDS analyses detect all of the elements, their quantities, and compositional homogeneity. SEM data show agglomerated and nearly spherical morphology with an average particle size of about 128 nm. All synthesized ceramic powders revealed thermal stability with trivial mass loss up to investigated high temperatures (1000 ^οC). The dielectric constant reached its maximum at 38.7 MHz and finally remained constant after 80 MHz for all nanoceramics. Because of the complementary impact of different compositions, the most effective piezoelectric characteristics of d₃₃ = 136 pCN^-1, P_r = 8.6 pCN^-1 cm^-2, and k_p = 11% at 30 °C were attained at x = 0.4 content for 0.4BiCaTi-0.6BiFeO₃ ceramic. The measured magnetic hysteresis data (M-H curve) showed a weak ferromagnetic nature with the highest moment of ∼0.23 emu/g for 0.4BiCaTi-0.6BiFeO₃, and other samples exhibited negligible ferromagnetic to diamagnetic transition. The optical response study shows that the 0.4BiMgTi-0.6BiFeO₃ sample yielded the maximal transmittance (50%), whereas the 0.4BiCaTi-0.6BiFeO₃ compound exhibited the highest refractive index. The calculated large band gap shows a high insulating or dielectric nature. Our findings demonstrate that the BiM²⁺Ti-BiFeO₃ system, which was fabricated using a low-temperature hydrothermal technique, is an excellent lead-free piezoelectric and multiferroic nanoceramic.