Abstract
The voltage response to pulsed uniform magnetic fields and the accompanying bending deformations of laminated cantilever structures are investigated experimentally in detail. The structures comprise a magnetoactive elastomer (MAE) slab and a commercially available piezoelectric polymer multilayer. The magnetic field is applied vertically and the laminated structures are customarily fixed in the horizontal plane or, alternatively, slightly tilted upwards or downwards. Six different MAE compositions incorporating three concentrations of carbonyl iron particles (70 wt%, 75 wt% and 80 wt%) and two elastomer matrices of different stiffness are used. The dependences of the generated voltage and the cantilever’s deflection on the composition of the MAE layer and its thickness are obtained. The appearance of the voltage between the electrodes of a piezoelectric material upon application of a magnetic field is considered as a manifestation of the direct magnetoelectric (ME) effect in a composite laminated structure. The ME voltage response increases with the increasing total quantity of the soft-magnetic filler in the MAE layer. The relationship between the generated voltage and the cantilever’s deflection is established. The highest observed peak voltage around 5.5 V is about 8.5-fold higher than previously reported values. The quasi-static ME voltage coefficient for this type of ME heterostructures is about 50 V/A in the magnetic field of ≈100 kA/m, obtained for the first time. The results could be useful for the development of magnetic field sensors and energy harvesting devices relying on these novel polymer composites.
Highlights
Multiferroic magnetoelectric (ME) composites attract large attention both from academe and industry due to their applications in sensor technology, high-frequency engineering, energy harvesting devices, random access memories, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6]
If a soft-magnetic planar magnetoactive elastomer (MAE) cantilever would be directed perpendicular to the uniform magnetic field, it would not be bent
A slight inclination of the normal to the MAE plane with respect to the external magnetic field leads to the torque acting on the MAE layer by the magnetic forces, because the magnetization of the MAE layer and the external magnetic field are not collinear
Summary
Multiferroic magnetoelectric (ME) composites attract large attention both from academe and industry due to their applications in sensor technology, high-frequency engineering, energy harvesting devices, random access memories, etc. [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A significant reduction of the effective Young’s modulus below 109 Pa would allow one to decrease the resonance frequency of a composite layered multiferroic structure (~1–100 kHz in conventional multilayered composites), where the efficiency of ME coupling is maximum, to the low-frequency range of 1 to 100 Hz. A significant reduction of the effective Young’s modulus below 109 Pa would allow one to decrease the resonance frequency of a composite layered multiferroic structure (~1–100 kHz in conventional multilayered composites), where the efficiency of ME coupling is maximum, to the low-frequency range of 1 to 100 Hz This would be advantageous for a number of applications such as vibration energy harvesting [7] or low-frequency magneticfield sensing [8,9]. This justifies the interest in mechanically soft ME materials because of their absence in nature. Low resonance frequencies (in order of a few hundred Hz) can be achieved in compositions of a PE polymer with a ferromagnetic metal if the thickness of the magnetostrictive (MS) layer is of the order of several micrometers [11]
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