High-performance magnetostrictive composites with large particles volume fraction

Abstract An innovative two-step method is used to produce high-performance magnetostrictive polymer composites based on Tb 0.5 Dy 0.5 Fe 1.95 alloy crystallites. The alloy crystallites are dynamically magnetically oriented in liquid epoxy, and then concentrated by extruding excess epoxy before curing in a horizontal magnetic field. Composites with a large particle volume fraction of 57% and enhanced particulate orientation were realized. The saturation magnetostriction and the energy density exceeded 1500 ppm and 16 kJ/m 3 , which were 15% and 60% greater than for static magnetically-oriented composites. The large alloy volume fraction results in a performance approaching that of the monolithic Tb-Dy-Fe alloy, but in a flexible shape and without the limited frequency range.