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Magnetic Nanoparticle Chains in Gelatin Ferrogels: Bioinspiration from Magnetotactic Bacteria
Inspired by chains of ferrimagnetic nanocrystals (NCs) in magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), the synthesis and detailed characterization of ferrimagnetic magnetite NC chain-like assemblies is reported. An easy green synthesis route in a thermoreversible gelatin hydrogel matrix is used. The structure of these magnetite chains prepared with and without gelatin is characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy, including electron tomography (ET). These structures indeed bear resemblance to the magnetite assemblies found in MTB, known for their mechanical flexibility and outstanding magnetic properties and known to crystallographically align their magnetite NCs along the strongest <111> magnetization easy axis. Using electron holography (EH) and angular dependent magnetic measurements, the magnetic interaction between the NCs and the generation of a magnetically anisotropic material can be shown. The electro- and magnetostatic modeling demonstrates that in order to precisely determine the magnetization (by means of EH) inside chain-like NCs assemblies, their exact shape, arrangement and stray-fields have to be considered (ideally obtained using ET). © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Control of Positive and Negative Magnetoresistance in Iron Oxide : Iron Nanocomposite Thin Films for Tunable Magnetoelectric Nanodevices
The perspective of energy-efficient and tunable functional magnetic nanostructures has triggered research efforts in the fields of voltage control of magnetism and spintronics. We investigate the magnetotransport properties of nanocomposite iron oxide/iron thin films with a nominal iron thickness of 5-50 nm and find a positive magnetoresistance at small thicknesses. The highest magnetoresistance was found for 30 nm Fe with +1.1% at 3 T. This anomalous behavior is attributed to the presence of Fe3O4-Fe nanocomposite regions due to grain boundary oxidation. At the Fe3O4/Fe interfaces, spin-polarized electrons in the magnetite can be scattered and reoriented. A crossover to negative magnetoresistance (-0.11%) is achieved at a larger thickness (>40 nm) when interface scattering effects become negligible as more current flows through the iron layer. Electrolytic gating of this system induces voltage-triggered redox reactions in the Fe3O4 regions and thereby enables voltage-tuning of the magnetoresistance with the locally oxidized regions as the active tuning elements. In the low-magnetic-field region (<1 T), a crossover from positive to negative magnetoresistance is achieved by a voltage change of only 1.72 V. At 3 T, a relative change of magnetoresistance about -45% during reduction was achieved for the 30 nm Fe sample. The present low-voltage approach signifies a step forward to practical and tunable room-temperature magnetoresistance-based nanodevices, which can boost the development of nanoscale and energy-efficient magnetic field sensors with high sensitivity, magnetic memories, and magnetoelectric devices in general. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.