Structural, magnetic and magnetoelectric investigations on CoFe<inf>2</inf>O<inf>4</inf> prepared via various wet chemical synthesis route : A Comparative Study

Magnetostrictive materials are potential candidates for many applications such as sensors, actuators, transducers, and other magnetoelectric applications. Cobalt Ferrite (CoFe2O4) has proven to be favourable in comparison to commonly used magnetostrictive materials due to its high magnetostriction coefficient and it's preparation being cost effective. This work deals with the preparation of CoFe2O4 (CFO) using four different wet chemical synthesis techniques in the form of autocombustion, co-precipitation, sol–gel and hydrothermal methods. Same conditions of heat treatment have been maintained for all the methods which facilitates a fair comparison of the performance of the samples prepared by various methods. The prepared CFO samples were subjected to subsequent characterization of their structural, magnetic, magnetostrictive and magnetoelectric properties. Static and dynamic magnetoelectric measurements were carried out on trilayered composites comprising of CFO synthesized by hydrothermal and sol–gel methods. Effect of in-plane and transverse compressive stress on the magnetoelectric response of CFO/PZT/CFO trilayered structure have been studied. All the experimental characterisations indicated the sample synthesized by hydrothermal method to yield better properties. The results thus reveal the importance of synthesis route towards attaining an improved magnetic, magnetostrictive and magnetoelectric properties of CFO.