Nano Review
Effects of NiO nanoparticles on the magnetic properties and diffuse phase transition of BZT/NiO composites
1 Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
2 Materials Science Research Center, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
3 Faculty of Materials Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 97331, USA
Nanoscale Research Letters 2012, 7:59 doi:10.1186/1556-276X-7-59
Published: 5 January 2012Abstract
A new composite system, Ba(Zr0.07Ti0.93)O3 (BZT93) ceramic/NiO nanoparticles, was fabricated to investigate the effect of NiO nanoparticles on the properties of these composites. M-H hysteresis loops showed an improvement in the magnetic behavior for higher NiO content samples plus modified ferroelectric properties. However, the 1 vol.% samples showed the optimum ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties. Examination of the dielectric spectra showed that the NiO additive promoted a diffuse phase transition, and the two phase transition temperatures, as observed for BZT93, merged into a single phase transition temperature for the composite samples.
