Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2012
The temperature effect on the magnetoelectric response of hybrid magnetostrictive/piezoelectric laminated composites in the range from room temperature up to 85 ºC is presented. The samples analyzed consisted of alternating, stacked, layers of a magnetostrictive amorphous metal, and a piezoelectric polymer, bonded to each other with an epoxy. The maximum magnetoelectric effect was observed when the composites were driven at their electromechanical resonance. First, we present results on the fabricability of the laminated composite sensor consisting on Vitrovac 4040® (Fe39Ni39Mo4Si6B12) as the magnetostrictive amorphous component and two different piezoelectric polymers: poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and 2,6(β-CN)APB/ODPA (poli 2,6) polyimide, a new type of high temperature piezoelectric polymer. At room temperature induced magnetoelectric voltages of 79.6 and 0.35 V/cm.Oe were measured when using PVDF and poli 2,6 polyimide respectively as the piezoelectric components. When heating, we have observed that the magnetoelectric response of the PVDF-containing device quickly decayed to about 5 V/cm.Oe, while for the poli 2,6- containing one it remained almost constat. We discuss the advantage of using this new piezoelectric polymer due to its good performance at high temperatures, making these magnetoelectric laminate composites suitable for high temperature applications.