Advances in Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Magnetic Materials

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide a valuable forum where scientists in different fields will be able to share their most recent advances made in material fields obtained in the amorphous and nanocrystalline phases. These structures are obtained using various production methods (casting, mechanical alloying, powder consolidation, selective laser melting (SLM),  laser engineered net shaping (LENS)) in the form of ribbons, rods, powders, coatings, etc., and are useful for the achievement of certain properties (mechanical, electrical, soft or hard magnetic, photoelectrochemical performance). Development of new materials with these properties depends on the level of understanding of the processes that underlie the formation of a particular structure.

For example, amorphous and nanocrystalline iron-cobalt-based alloys have received considerable attention for use as core materials in magnetic heat, high-frequency, and high-power transformers, choke coils, magnetostrictive converters, and sensors. The main users of cores are electronic equipment producers, especially manufacturers specializing in telecommunication and power supply equipment, etc.

Amorphous alloys are relatively brittle and become more so with heat treatment. Various insulation materials (e.g. MgO, SiO₂,  Polyamide, Polyester) have proven to be promising when used in amorphous tape-wound cores for high-voltage pulse applications, as well as for metal oxide coatings (e.g., TiO₂, Ag₂O, ZnO, Cu₂O, NiO, ZrO₂ ) used in materials due to their impact on thermal stability, electrical performance and other physical properties. Metal oxides are used in important industrial processes as catalysts, and are well-known materials for sensor, biosensor and solar cell applications. 

For magnetostrictive materials, the possibility of reducing the anisotropy in the nanocrystalline structure without loosening the high magnetostriction is very important. These materials constitute a prospective environmentally friendly engineering material and could be used for applications such as permanent magnet motors.

Nanoparticles in the composite can introduce new physical properties and novel behaviors that are absent in the unfilled matrices. This effectively changes the nature of the original matrix. Some examples of such new properties are fire resistance, flame retardancy and accelerated biodegradability. It is possible to use industrial by-products such as silica fume (SF) and fly ash (FA). Silica fume is an amorphous polymorph of silicon dioxide, which it is an ultrafine powder collected as a by-product of the silicon and ferrosilicon alloy production. Silica fume and fly ashes can be also utilized as pozzolanic admixtures for general purpose and ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), which is a widely used construction material throughout the world.

Topics to be covered include but are not limited to:

• Magnetization process; hysteresis loop; anisotropy;
• Description of amorphous materials such as metallic glasses;
• Glass forming ability; crystallization;
• Calorimetry and stability of amorphous materials;
• Magnetostrictive materials;
• Selecting the parameters of casting and mechanical alloying processes;
• Structure, properties and applications of amorphous and nanocrystalline materials;
• Intrinsic properties of permanent magnetic materials;
• Sintered magnets;
• Nanoscale hard magnetism;
• Innovative engineering materials;
• Experimental methods;
• Magnetic particles in biomedical applications.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Applied Sciences.

Prof. Sabina Lesz
Guest Editor

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