Strategic Enhancement of Photocatalytic, Piezoelectric and Dielectric Properties of Solid-State Synthesized BaFe12O19 Nanoparticles Reinforced into PMMA Polymer Matrices Nanocomposites for Energy Storage Applications

This research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of nanocomposites consisting of barium hexaferrite (BaFe 12 O 19 ) nanoparticles reinforced into poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer matrices. The nanocomposites were prepared using a solution-casting technique, while the barium hexaferrite nanoparticles were synthesized via a conventional solid-state reaction method, followed by calcination at 800°C for 1 hour. Structural, morphological, photocatalytic, piezoelectric, and dielectric properties were evaluated using several characterization techniques, including FTIR, XRD, SEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy, d33 meter, and LCR analyzer. FTIR analysis identified absorption bands corresponding to Ba-O and Fe-O, as well as organic functional groups associated with the PMMA polymer matrices. XRD analysis confirmed the hexagonal structure of BaFe 12 O 19 nanoparticles, with an average crystallite size of 15.23 nm. SEM analysis determined the particle size to be approximately 28 nm. UV-Vis spectroscopy evaluated the nanoparticles band-gap 1.76 eV and assessed photocatalytic activity. Under UV irradiation, all nanocomposites progressively degraded methylene blue (MB), where the 40 wt% BFO/PMMA nanocomposite achieving comparatively higher degradation efficiency of 67.22% than 61.78% for 50 wt% BFO/PMMA nanocomposite after 60 min. The maximum piezoelectric coefficient was determined 40 pC/N for 50 wt% BFO/PMMA nanocomposite with d 33 meter analysis. The dielectric, impedance and modulus characteristics were observed over the low-high frequency range 40–110 MHz. As barium hexaferrite nanoparticles reinforcement increased into PMMA polymer matrices, the 50 wt% composition exhibited relatively high dielectric constant 7.1 and ac conductivity 2.25\(\:{×\:10}⁻³\) S cm − 1 , along with low dielectric loss 0.08 at high frequency range (1M-110M) Hz. Impedance and electrical-modulus analysis further revealed broad non-Debye relaxation behavior associated with heterogeneous BFO/PMMA interfaces and localized charge-transport processes. The dispersion observed in the plots of Z″ and M″ with increasing frequency indicates the occurrence of dielectric relaxation. Overall, relatively higher BaFe 12 O 19 reinforcement enhanced multifunctional properties of the nanocomposite, demonstrating their potential for energy storage, sensing, actuations, dielectric and photocatalytic pollutant-remediation applications.