Multiferroic magnetoelectric composite systems such as ferromagnetic-ferroelectric heterostructures have recently attracted an ever-increasing interest and provoked a great number of research activities, driven by profound physics from coupling between ferroelectric and magnetic orders, as well as potential applications in novel multifunctional devices, such as sensors, transducers, memories, and spintronics. In this Review, we try to summarize what remarkable progress in multiferroic magnetoelectric composite systems has been achieved in most recent few years, with emphasis on thin films; and to describe unsolved issues and new device applications which can be controlled both electrically and magnetically.

Recent Progress in Multiferroic Magnetoelectric Composites: from Bulk to Thin Films

Energy shortage, environmental crisis, and developing customer demands have driven people to find facile, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and nontoxic routes to produce novel functional materials that can be commercialized in the near future. Amongst various techniques, the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process of biomass (either of isolated carbohydrates or crude plants) is a promising candidate for the synthesis of novel carbon-based materials with a wide variety of potential applications. In this Review, we will discuss various synthetic routes towards such novel carbon-based materials or composites via the HTC process of biomass. Furthermore, factors that influence the carbonization process will be analyzed and the special chemical/physical properties of the final products will be discussed. Despite the lack of a clear mechanism, these novel carbonaceous materials have already shown promising applications in many fields such as carbon fixation, water purification, fuel cell catalysis, energy storage, CO(2) sequestration, bioimaging, drug delivery, and gas sensors. Some of the most promising examples will also be discussed here, demonstrating that the HTC process can rationally design a rich family of carbonaceous and hybrid functional carbon materials with important applications in a sustainable fashion.

Engineering Carbon Materials from the Hydrothermal Carbonization Process of Biomass

Microwave ferrites are ubiquitous in systems that send, receive, and manipulate electromagnetic signals across very high frequency to quasi-optical frequency bands. In this paper, modern microwave ferrites are reviewed including spinel, garnet, and hexaferrite systems as thin and thick films, powders and compacts, and metamaterials. Their fundamental properties and utility are examined in the context of high frequency applications ranging from the VHF to millimeter-wave bands. Perspective and outlook of advances in theory, processing, and devices occurring in the science and engineering communities since the year 2000 are presented and discussed.

Modern Microwave Ferrites

The simultaneous entrapment of biological macromolecules and nanostructured silica-coated magnetite in sol-gel materials using a reverse-micelle technique leads to a bioactive, mechanically stable, nanometer-sized, and magnetically separable particles. These spherical particles have a typical diameter of 53 +/- 4 nm, a large surface area of 330 m(2)/g, an average pore diameter of 1.5 nm, a total pore volume of 1.427 cm(3)/g and a saturated magnetization (M(S)) of 3.2 emu/g. Peroxidase entrapped in these particles shows Michaelis-Mentan kinetics and high activity. The catalytic reaction will take place immediately after adding these particles to the reaction solution. These enzyme entrapping particles catalysts can be easily separated from the reaction mixture by simply using an external magnetic field. Experiments have proved that these catalysts have a long-term stability toward temperature and pH change, as compared to free enzyme molecules. To further prove the application of this novel magnetic biomaterial in analytical chemistry, a magnetic-separation immunoassay system was also developed for the quantitative determination of gentamicin. The calibration for gentamicin has a working range of 200-4000 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 160 ng/mL, which is close to that of the fluorescent polarization immunoassay (FPIA) using the same reactants.

Magnetite-containing spherical silica nanoparticles for biocatalysis and bioseparations （vol 76, pg 1316, 2004）

The role of cobalt ferrite magnetic nanoparticles in medical science

Metal bonded cobalt ferrite composites have been shown to be promising candidate materials for use in magnetoelastic stress sensors, due to their large magnetostriction and high sensitivity of magnetization to stress. However previous results have shown that below 60 °C the cobalt ferrite material exhibits substantial magnetomechanical hysteresis. In the current study, measurements indicate that substituting Mn for some of the Fe in the cobalt ferrite can lower the Curie temperature of the material while maintaining a suitable magnetostriction for stress sensing applications. These results demonstrate the possibility of optimizing the magnetomechanical hysteresis of cobalt ferrite-based composites for stress sensor applications, through control of the Curie temperature.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=ameslab_pubs

Manganese-substituted cobalt ferrite magnetostrictive materials for magnetic stress sensor applications

The temperature variation of magnetic anisotropy and coercive field of magnetoelastic manganese-substituted cobalt ferrites (CoMnxFe2?xO4 with 0 ? x ? 0.6) was investigated. Major magnetic hysteresis loops were measured for each sample at temperatures over the range 10–400 K, using a superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. The high-field regimes of the hysteresis loops were modeled using the law of approach to saturation equation, based on the assumption that at sufficiently high field only rotational processes remain, with an additional forced magnetization term that was linear with applied field. The cubic anisotropy constant K1 was calculated from the fitting of the data to the theoretical equation. It was found that anisotropy increases substantially with decreasing temperature from 400 to 150 K, and decreases with increasing Mn content. Below 150 K, it appears that even under a maximum applied field of 5 T, the anisotropy of CoFe2O4 and CoMn0.2Fe1.8O4 is so high as to prevent complete approach to saturation, thereby making the use of the law of approach questionable in these cases.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=mse_pubs

Temperature dependence of magnetic anisotropy in Mn-substituted cobalt ferrite

Broadly magnetic sensors and actuators rely on only a few basic principles. These include the law of induction, for magneto-inductive devices; the Ampere force law, for magnetomechanical sensors; and changes in materials properties under the action of a magnetic field, such as magnetoresistance, magneto-optics or magnetoelasticity for sensors based on magnetoelectronics (Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Magnetic Materials, Measurements and Modeling: symposium on magnetic sensors materials and devices, Ames, Iowa, USA, May 16–17, 2002). The identification and characterization of new materials with enhanced magnetic properties is important for the development of improved sensors and actuators. In some cases the identification of new materials can open up new applications for magnetic sensors and actuators which were previously not possible.

Chester C.H. Lo

Papers

Manganese-substituted cobalt ferrite magnetostrictive materials for magnetic stress sensor applications

Temperature dependence of magnetic anisotropy in Mn-substituted cobalt ferrite

The role of new materials in the development of magnetic sensors and actuators

Mechanical properties of single crystal YAg

Fracture toughness of polycrystalline YCu, DyCu, and YAg