Chemical Bonding Assembly of Multifunctional Oxide Nanocomposites

Abstract

Abstract The synthesis, functionalization and assembly of metal oxide nanoparticles BaTiO 3 and CoFe 2 O 4 is presented. The ferroelectric (BaTiO 3 ) and ferromagnetic (CoFe 2 O 4 ) oxide nanoparticle surfaces are directly functionalized via the anchoring of phosphonic acid and aminosilane molecules that engender the nanoparticles with terminal carboxylic acid and amine functional groups, respectively. These promote the electrostatic self‐assembly of the particles in non‐polar solvents and permit the synthesis of more chemically robust assemblies linked by the covalent amide bond via the addition of the chemical coupling agent N ‐ N′ ‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. This functionalization and assembly procedure is applied to two systems: the first comprised of 50 nm BaTiO 3 and 10 nm CoFe 2 O 4 particles and the second of 200 nm BaTiO 3 and 12.5 nm CoFe 2 O 4 particles. The latter composites possess magnetoelectric properties when processed into dense ceramics and, as a direct result of the assembly performed in solution, have a high degree of homogeneity between the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases. The developed functionalization and assembly procedure is considered to be adaptable to the preparation of other hybrid oxide nanomaterials with different property combinations.