Polymer-based magnetoelectric composite materials have attracted a lot of attention due to their high potential in various types of applications as magnetic field sensors, energy harvesting, and biomedical devices. Current researches are focused on the increase in the efficiency of magnetoelectric transformation. In this work, a new strategy of arrangement of clusters of magnetic nanoparticles by an external magnetic field in PVDF and PFVD-TrFE matrixes is proposed to increase the voltage coefficient (αME) of the magnetoelectric effect. Another strategy is the use of 3-component composites through the inclusion of piezoelectric BaTiO3 particles. Developed strategies allow us to increase the αME value from ~5 mV/cm·Oe for the composite of randomly distributed CoFe2O4 nanoparticles in PVDF matrix to ~18.5 mV/cm·Oe for a composite of magnetic particles in PVDF-TrFE matrix with 5%wt of piezoelectric particles. The applicability of such materials as bioactive surface is demonstrated on neural crest stem cell cultures.
The possibility of the formation of high entropy single-phase perovskites using solid-state sintering was investigated. The BaO–SrO–CaO–MgO–PbO–TiO2, BaO–SrO–CaO–MgO–PbO–Fe2O3 and Na2O–K2O–CaO–La2O3–Ce2O3–TiO2 oxide systems were investigated. The optimal synthesis temperature is found between 1150 and 1400 °C, at which the microcrystalline single phase with perovskite structure was produced. The morphology, chemical composition, crystal parameters and dielectric properties were studied and compared with that of pure BaTiO3. According to the EDX data, the single-phase product has a formula of Na0.30K0.07Ca0.24La0.18Ce0.21TiO3 and a cubic structure.
Thermophysical, magnetic, and dielectric properties of multiferroic BiFeO3 and Bi0.95La0.05FeO3ceramic compounds were comprehensively studied. Anomalies of the permittivity near an antiferromagnetic...
Three-dimensional printing is one of the most promising areas of additive manufacturing with a constantly growing range of applications. One of the current tasks is the development of new functional materials that would allow the manufacture of objects with defined magnetic, electrical, and other properties. In this work, composite magnetic filaments for 3D printing with tunable magnetic properties were produced from polylactic acid thermoplastic polymer with the addition of magnetic ferrite particles of different size and chemical composition. The used magnetic particles were cobalt ferrite CoFe2O4 nanoparticles, a mixture of CoFe2O4 and zinc-substituted cobalt ferrite Zn0.3Co0.7Fe2O4 nanoparticles (~20 nm), and barium hexaferrite BaFe12O19 microparticles (<40 µm). The maximum coercivity field HC = 1.6 ± 0.1 kOe was found for the filament sample with the inclusion of 5 wt.% barium hexaferrite microparticles, and the minimum HC was for a filament with a mixture of cobalt and zinc–cobalt spinel ferrites. Capabilities of the FDM 3D printing method to produce parts having simple (ring) and complex geometric shapes (honeycomb structures) with the magnetic composite filament were demonstrated.
The coupling between electric, magnetic and elastic features in multiferroic materials is an emerging field in materials science, with important applications on alternative solid-state cooling technologies, energy harvesting and sensors/actuators. In this direction, we developed a thorough investigation of a multiferroic composite, comprising magnetocaloric/magnetostrictive Gd $${}_{5}$$ Si $${}_{2.4}$$ Ge $${}_{1.6}$$ microparticles blended into a piezo- and pyroelectric poly(vinylidene) fluoride (PVDF) matrix. Using a simple solvent casting technique, the formation and stabilization of PVDF electroactive phases are improved when the filler content increases from 2 to 12 weight fraction (wt.%). This effect greatly contributes to the magnetoelectric (ME) coupling, with the ME coefficient $${\alpha }_{ME}$$ increasing from 0.3 V/cm.Oe to 2.2 V/cm.Oe, by increasing the amount of magnetic material. In addition, magnetic measurements revealed that the ME-coupling has influenced the magnetocaloric effect via a contribution from the electroactive polymer and hence leading to a multicaloric effect. These results contribute to the development of multifunctional systems for novel technologies.
The creation of multi-stimuli-sensitive composite polymer–inorganic materials is a practical scientific task. The combination of photoactive magneto-piezoelectric nanomaterials and ferroelectric polymers offers new properties that can help solve environmental and energy problems. Using the doctor blade casting method with the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) technique, we synthesized a hybrid polymer–inorganic nanocomposite porous membrane based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3/BFO). We studied the samples using transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM/SEM), infrared Fourier spectroscopy (FTIR), total transmission and diffuse reflection, fluorescence microscopy, photoluminescence (PL), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM), and piezopotential measurements. Our results demonstrate that the addition of BFO increases the proportion of the polar phase from 76.2% to 93.8% due to surface ion–dipole interaction. We also found that the sample exhibits laser-induced fluorescence, with maxima at 475 and 665 nm depending on the presence of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix. Furthermore, our piezo-photocatalytic experiments showed that under the combined actions of ultrasonic treatment and UV–visible light irradiation, the reaction rate increased by factors of 68, 13, 4.2, and 1.6 compared to sonolysis, photolysis, piezocatalysis, and photocatalysis, respectively. This behavior is explained by the piezoelectric potential and the narrowing of the band gap of the composite due to the mechanical stress caused by ultrasound.