MIET scientists are exploring new eco-friendly materials for magnetoelectric sensors
Nowadays scientists don't have much information about the structure and properties of materials based on bismuth manganite due to the difficulties of synthesizing single-phase and chemically homogeneous compositions.
A group of scientists led by Doctor of Science Engineering D.V. Karpinsky, the senior researcher at the Institute of Advanced Materials and Technologies (AMT) started to work on identifying the relationships between the crystal structure and functional properties of solid solutions of bismuth manganite. The result of the study is supposed to be the possibility of using these materials to develop sensors of external influences, as well as magnetostrictive and piezoelectric elements.
Project relevance
One of the important tasks of modern materials science is the search for new eco-friendly functional materials for various electrical devices - sensors, transmitters, receivers etc. The most promising ones for such purposes are the so-called multiferrocks - materials that simultaneously possess magnetic and electrical ordering, due to which their electrical properties can be controlled using magnetic influence and vice versa.
The main goal of the new project of MIET scientists is to search for an inexpensive and convenient in mass production material that has magnetoelectric interaction, polarization, magnetization and at the same time meets environmental standards (because many materials currently used contain lead, which has a negative impact on the environment). The scientists work with multiferroics based on complex transition metal oxides with various dopants. These are artificially created materials (mainly in the form of bulk ceramic compositions) obtained at high temperature from a mixture of the corresponding oxides or nitrates (the ability to control the properties of such materials is realized through various schemes for chemical substitution of basic compounds - bismuth manganite and bismuth ferrite).
Applications
The studied materials allow to produce magnetic sensors, capacitive electromagnets, magnetic memory elements, microwave filters and other devices. Also, scientists are developing sensors of constant and variable fields based on complex transition metal oxides; the optimal sensor geometry is selected depending on the configuration of the magnetic field. “Studies of materials based on bismuth manganite will make it possible to determine how the type of structural distortions, structural parameters and chemical substitution schemes, as well as external factors affect the nature of the chemical bond and the type of exchange interactions formed between transition metal ions,” says Doctor of Science Engineering Maksim Silibin, the project implementer, senior researcher at the Institute of AMT. These parameters determine the ferroelectric, magnetic, and transport properties, as well as the magnitude of the magnetoelectric interaction in BiMnO3 solid solutions. Thus, the materials we are synthesizing can be used to develop sensors of external influences, as well as magnetostrictive and piezoelectric elements.”
Eco-friendly development
The studied materials are eco-friendlier compared to the existing analogues, and the use of various chemical substitution schemes makes it possible to change the physicochemical properties of such materials controllably. This helps to develop materials with the specified parameters required for a particular device.