The Low-Temperature Cosintering of Cobalt Ferrite and Lead Zirconate Titanate Ceramic Composites

Magneto-electric (ME) ceramic composites of cobalt ferrite (CoF) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) were prepared by mechanical mixing of the constituent powders followed by cosintering. The cosintering conditions for nano-sized CoF and submicrometer-sized PZT powders were studied in detail. It was found that the CoF powder needs to be presintered at 700 degrees C for 2 h to minimize the differences in the sintering kinetics of the constituent powders. Despite the low cosintering temperatures (900 degrees C-1000 degrees C) the interdiffusion of the cations from both phases was confirmed with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction. Efforts were made to optimize the cosintering conditions to prepare dense ceramic ME composites, which showed the converse ME effect.