Investigations on structural, morphological, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties of BiFeO₃/BiMnO₃ composite ceramics prepared via sol–gel synthesis route

Abstract

In this work, we report the preparation of BiFeO₃/BiMnO₃ (BFO/BMO) composite material, via the chemical substitution method, by adopting the sol–gel method. The X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the formation of two distinct phases in the prepared sample. Field emission scanning electron microscopic images revealed the two different morphologies, and the compositional studies verified the presence of the respective elements in these different grains. The dielectric constant value almost doubled in the composite sample than the single-phase BFO sample. The dielectric constant values at a frequency of 10⁵ Hz were found to be 46 and 73 for the BFO and BFO/BMO samples, respectively. The remnant polarization value was found to reduce from 8.3 µC/cm² (for BFO) to 0.3 µC/cm² for biphasic BFO/BMO samples.

Keywords:

• BiFeO₃
• BiMnO₃
• composite materials
• ferroelectric hysteresis
• dielectric constant

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Central Analytical Laboratory of BITS – Pilani Hyderabad campus for giving access to the characterization facilities. We also thank all the lab technicians for helping us complete the work on time.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank DST-SERB (EMR/2017-002340) for supporting this project and BITS -Pilani, Hyderabad campus, for providing the necessary infrastructure to carry out these investigations.