Induced magnetoelectric effect driven by magnetization in BaFe12O19/P(VDF-TrFE) composites

In the last years the fabrication of multifunctional composite materials like the mixture of piezoelectric polymers with magnetic/magnetostrictive nanoparticles to give as result magnetoelectric (ME) composites has received great effort [1]. P(VDF-TrFE), in the poled ferroelectric phase, exhibits one of the highest piezoelectric responses among polymer materials over a wide range of temperature depending on its composition. Among ferrites, the ferrimagnetic material barium ferrite (BaFe₁₂O₁₉) shows particular magnetic properties as high coercive force and hysteresis losses. Despite its very low magnetostriction (9 ppm), Barium ferrite has very high magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the low-symmetry hexagonal magnetoplumbite crystal structure with hexagonal unit cell. Although barium ferrite particles have the shape of thin hexagonal platelets, the easy direction of magnetization remains along the c axis, which is perpendicular to the plates.