Design of Magnetostrictive Nanoparticles for Magnetoelectric Composites

The magnetoelectric (ME) effect in ME composite materials is a product tensor property, which results from the interaction between the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive phases. Magnetostriction, also called magnetomechanical effect, refers to the change in a ferromagnetic material's dimension when it is subjected to a magnetic field that modifies its magnetic state. This chapter summarizes the most widely used materials in magnetostriction applications. It then reviews the most widely used synthesis approaches to produce magnetostrictive nanoparticles (NPs) for ME composites using top-down and bottom-up procedures, involving the vapor, liquid, or solid states. Top-down production approaches include: mechanosynthesis or mechanical attrition, mechanical alloying and inert-gas condensation approach. The bottom-up production approaches includes: solid-state reaction, laser pyrolysis and wet-chemical approaches. Nevertheless, wet-chemical methods are extensively used because of the excellent control achieved during material synthesis, mild reaction conditions, and less expensive equipment required in comparison with other techniques.