Effect of the Two-Dimensional Magnetostrictive Fillers of CoFe2O4-Intercalated Graphene Oxide Sheets in 3-2 Type Poly(vinylidene fluoride)-Based Magnetoelectric Films

High-Resolution Magnetoelectric Sensor and Low-Frequency Measurement Using Frequency Up-Conversion Technique

The magnetoelectric (ME) sensor is a new type of magnetic sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity that suitable for the measurement of low-frequency weak magnetic fields. In this study, a metglas/PZT-5B ME sensor with mechanical resonance frequency fres of 60.041 kHz was prepared. It is interesting to note that its magnetic field resolution reached 0.20 nT at fres and 0.34 nT under a DC field, respectively. In order to measure ultralow-frequency AC magnetic fields, a frequency up-conversion technique was employed. Using this technique, a limit of detection (LOD) under an AC magnetic field lower than 1 nT at 8 Hz was obtained, and the minimum LOD of 0.51 nT was achieved at 20 Hz. The high-resolution ME sensor at the sub-nT level is promising in the field of low-frequency weak magnetic field measurement technology.

Effect of Polymer Dissolution Temperature and Conditioning Time on the Morphological and Physicochemical Characteristics of Poly(Vinylidene Fluoride) Membranes Prepared by Non-Solvent Induced Phase Separation

This work reports on the production of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent and water as non-solvent. The influence of the processing conditions in the morphology, surface characteristics, structure, thermal and mechanical properties were evaluated for polymer dissolution temperatures between 25 and 150 °C and conditioning time between 0 and 10 min. Finger-like pore morphology was obtained for all membranes and increasing the polymer dissolution temperature led to an increase in the average pore size (≈0.9 and 2.1 µm), porosity (≈50 to 90%) and water contact angle (up to 80°), in turn decreasing the β PVDF content (≈67 to 20%) with the degree of crystallinity remaining approximately constant (≈56%). The conditioning time did not significantly affect the polymer properties studied. Thus, the control of NIPS parameters proved to be suitable for tailoring PVDF membrane properties.