Abstract:
Iron epoxy composite materials were made and their relative magnetic permeability was measured. A measurement device was created to measure the relative magnetic permeability for the specific application. This device proved to be accurate and reliable. The magnetic properties of composite materials have been shown to be controllable, with a linear response to volume fraction of iron in the composite. A material with a maximum relative magnetic permeability was achieved at /mu[subscript r]= 650. Curing the composite material in a magnetic field proved to increase the relative magnetic permeability of the composite when the axis that the composite was aligned was the same as the direction that the measurement device reads. The perpendicular direction produced no change in relative magnetic permeability.
Nanocomposite magnetic materials were investigated based on the use of superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The iron nanoparticles were produced in both a batch reactor and a microfluidic system. The microfluidic system consisted of a micromixer provided by NanoBits, Inc. and a length of PEEK tubing. A half factorial experiment was performed on the microfluidic system to determine the important factors when controlling the size of iron nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were measured for crystal size by x-ray diffraction using Rietveld refinement to model the size strain broadening caused by the small crystal size. Rietveld analysis was performed with the help of the software package FullProf.
