Tailored Magnetic and Magnetoelectric Responses of Polymer-Based Composites

The manipulation of electric ordering with applied magnetic fields has been realized on magnetoelectric (ME) materials; however, their ME switching is often accompanied by significant hysteresis and coercivity that represents for some applications a severe weakness. To overcome this obstacle, this work focuses on the development of a new type of ME polymer nanocomposites that exhibits a tailored ME response at room temperature. The multiferroic nanocomposites are based on three different ferrite nanoparticles, Zn0.2Mn0.8Fe2O4 (ZMFO), CoFe2O4 (CFO) and Fe3O4 (FO), dispersed in a piezoelectric copolymer poly(vinylindene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) matrix. No substantial differences were detected in the time-stable piezoelectric response of the composites (∼-28 pC·N(1-)) with distinct ferrite fillers and for the same ferrite content of 10 wt %. Magnetic hysteresis loops from pure ferrite nanopowders showed different magnetic responses. ME results of the nanocomposite films with 10 wt % ferrite content revealed that the ME induced voltage increases with increasing dc magnetic field until a maximum of 6.5 mV·cm(-1)·Oe(1-), at an optimum magnetic field of 0.26 T, and 0.8 mV·cm(-1)·Oe(1-), at an optimum magnetic field of 0.15 T, for the CFO/P(VDF-TrFE) and FO/P(VDF-TrFE) composites, respectively. In contrast, the ME response of ZMFO/P(VDF-TrFE) exposed no hysteresis and high dependence on the ZMFO filler content. Possible innovative applications such as memories and information storage, signal processing, and ME sensors and oscillators have been addressed for such ferrite/PVDF nanocomposites.