Fine-grained multiferroic BaTiO3/(Ni0.5Zn0.5)Fe2O4 composite ceramics synthesized by novel powder-in-sol precursor hybrid processing route

Dense, homogeneous, and fine-grained multiferroic BaTiO3/(Ni0.5Zn0.5)Fe2O4 composite ceramics are synthesized by a novel powder-in-sol precursor hybrid processing route. This route includes the dispersion of nanosized BaTiO3 ferroelectric powders prepared via conventional sold-state ceramic process into (Ni0.5Zn0.5)Fe2O4 ferromagnetic sol–gel precursor prepared via sol–gel wet chemistry process. Uniformly distributed slurry is obtained after ball milling and used in the fabrication of the ceramics with low sintering temperatures. The ceramics show coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric phases with obvious ferromagnetic and ferroelectric hysteresis loops at room temperature, besides exhibiting excellent magnetic and dielectric properties in a wide range of frequency. The combination of high permeability and permittivity with low losses in the ceramics enables significant miniaturization of electronic devices based on the ceramics.