Synthesis and Mechanical Characterization of Magnetic Hybrid Materials with PVB as Polymeric Matrix for Micro-Actuation Applications

This work presents two multifunctional magnetic hybrid materials with potential applications as micro-actuators. The first one consists of iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles embedded in polyvinyl butyral (PVB). For the second one, Fe2O3 nanoparticles, coated with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), were embedded in PVB. The main objective is to describe their synthesis and morphological and magnetic characterizations, and to evaluate their displacement against a variable magnetic field. The maximal displacement is obtained by the (Fe2O3-CMC)/PVB beam-shaped structure (28.37 × 2.6 × 0.183 mm3) with 843 μm; the maximal electric power being 1.14 W. The levels of displacement induced in both hybrid materials as a response of the external magnetic field, besides the low electric power required, let us conclude that the studied materials could be considered as good candidates to micro-actuators applications.