This paper reports the fabrication and characterization of a new type of magnetoelectric polymer nanocomposite that exhibits excellent ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity simultaneously at room temperature. The multiferroic nanocomposite consists of high aspect ratio ferromagnetic iron nanowires embedded inside a ferroelectric co-polymer poly(vinylindene fluoride-trifluoroethylene), P(VDF-TrFE). The nanocomposite has been fabricated via a simple low temperature spin coating technique. Structural, ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, and magnetoelectric properties of the developed nanocomposite have been characterized. The nanocomposite films showed isotropic magnetic properties due to the random orientation of the iron nanowires inside the film. In addition, the embedded nanowires did not hinder the ferroelectric phase development of the nanocomposite. The developed nanocomposite showed a high magnetoelectric coupling response of 156 mV/cmOe measured at 3.1 kOe DC bias field. This value is among the highest reported magnetoelectric coupling in two phase particulate polymer nanocomposites.

1.
P.
Martins
and
S.
Lanceros-Mendez
, “
Polymer-based magnetoelectric materials
,”
Adv. Funct. Mater.
23
,
3371
(
2013
).
2.
J.
Jin
 et al., “
Multiferroic polymer composites with greatly enhanced magnetoelectric effect under low magnetic bias
,”
Adv. Mater.
23
,
3853
(
2011
).
3.
P.
Martins
 et al., “
Optimizing piezoelectric and magnetoelectric response on CoFe2O4/P(VDF-TrFE) nanocomposites
,”
J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.
44
,
495303
(
2011
).
4.
P.
Martins
 et al., “
Linear anhysteretic direct magnetoelectric effect in Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) 0-3 nanocomposites
,”
J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.
44
,
482001
(
2011
).
5.
D.-W.
Shi
 et al., “
Exchange-biased hybrid ferromagnetic-multiferroic core-shell nanostructures
,”
Nanoscale
6
,
7215
7220
(
2014
).
6.
A.
Alfadhel
 et al., “
Magnetic nanocomposite for biomimetic flow sensing
,”
Lab Chip
14
,
4362
(
2014
).
7.
A. B.
Daly
 et al., “
Synthesis and characterization of highly ordered cobalt–magnetite nanocable arrays
,”
Small
2
(
11
),
1299
1307
(
2006
).
8.
V.
Vega
 et al., “
Tuning the magnetic anisotropy of Co–Ni nanowires: Comparison between single nanowires and nanowire arrays in hard-anodic aluminum oxide membranes
,”
Nanotechnology
23
,
465709
(
2012
).
9.
H.
Masuda
and
K.
Fukuda
, “
Ordered metal nanohole arrays made by a two-step replication of honeycomb structures of anodic alumina
,”
Science
268
,
1466
(
1995
).
10.
K.
Nielsch
and
B.
Stadler
, “
Template-based synthesis and characterization of high-density ferromagnetic nanowire arrays
,” in
Handbook of Magnetism and Advanced Magnetic Materials
(
Wiley & Sons
,
2007
).
11.
G. V.
Duong
 et al., “
The lock in technique for studying ME effect
,”
J. Magn. Magn. Mater.
316
,
390
(
2007
).
You do not currently have access to this content.