Nonlinear magnetoelectric effects of polymer-based hybrid magnetoelectric composites with chain-like terfenol-D/epoxy and PVDF multilayers

Polymer-based hybrid magnetoelectric (ME) composites have the advantages of light weight, good flexibility, environmental friendliness and biocompatibility, etc., and have potential applications special in mechanical signal detection and special environments, such as biomimetic robots, medical non-invasive detection, virus monitoring and other fields. The ME performance of this composite is closely related to its microstructure characteristics. In this work, a connection between the effective performance of the chain-arranged magnetostrictive composite and its microscopic properties is presented by the two-step homogenization process. On this basis, a theoretical model of the ME effect is established for the chain-like Terfenol-D/epoxy and PVDF multilayers, and the analytical expression of its polarized electric field is also obtained. By comparison, our theoretical results agree well with the software calculation results and experimental data. Then the influence of some factors on the ME properties are discussed. The results show that the ME coefficients and resonance frequency strongly depend on the microstructure characteristics of the structure. Besides, the aspect ratio and volume fraction of the magnetostrictive inclusions, the magnetic-field intensity, and the frequency of the magnetic field, all have significant effects on the ME coefficient. This research will provide a theoretical basis for the preparation and application of the hybrid ME composites.