Influence of particle size on hysteresis heating behavior of nickel particulate polymer films

The viability of using magnetic particulate susceptor materials for induction heating during bonding of polymer matrix composites is investigated in this work. Hysteresis heating is tailored through careful design of the microstructure of nickel particulate polymer films. An excellent heating rate is attained in the frequency range of 1–10 MHz for particle volume fraction below percolation of 0.26. The diameter of nickel particle should be kept between 65 nm and 10 μm to ensure multi-domain heating and low particle oxidation. The hysteresis heating behavior of the particulate films is found to be volumetric in nature and proportional to the cubic of applied magnetic field. Over the range studied, heat generation is inversely proportional to the size of the multi-domain particles. Curie temperature control is observed when sufficiently high magnetic fields are applied. The master curves of AC heat generation in Ni/PSU films are established and show a strong particle size effect.