The research progress is currently on schedule, and in some cases slightly ahead of schedule, with respect to the listed aims and milestones. We have already created a library of approximately ten cobalt ferrite (CFO), magnetostrictive (MS) nanoparticles. These are primarily still spherical, but have a range of magnetic behaviors. We hope to expand our library to include various shapes during the next phase of our project. All MS particles that we have made to date characterized chemically and magnetically. The MS characterization method is still in progress, with a collaboration via the TUM ZEIT lab established to use Focused Ion Beam (FIB) characterization to carry out these measurements. Therefore, the MS particles have not yet been characterized in this manner. Milestone 1, in which at least five MS particles have been synthesized and characterized, is fully achieved, with the exception of the MS characterization. The model we proposed is also running, and we will be submitting a manuscript to share the results in spring 2026. Milestone 2, in which we can back-predict properties, is not yet achieved (however, this was targeted for later than this reporting period). We plan to submit a manuscript characterizing these first particles in summer of 2026.
We have generated more than one barium titanate (BTO) coating protocol, and completed chemical, magnetic, and magnetoelectric characterization (more on the latter below). As the direct MS measurements are not yet up and running, we have not directly shown that the coating protocol alters the MS behavior of the CFO core particles. However, we have used an indirect way to predict this. In short, we normalize the CFO-BTO magnetic VSM curves using the mass ratio of the two phases to the same curve with just CFO. Any changes in MS behavior would also reflect changes in magnetic behavior, and in this way we can show that the CFO MS behavior is unchanged. Of the BTO coating methods we have used thus far, none show a change. Therefore, we have also achieved Milestone 3, but will continue to explore additional coating protocols. We have changed our ME measurement strategy from a piezoforce microscopy (PFM) method, to a new method, and we have successfully characterized the magnetoelectric (ME) behavior of a few ME nanoelectrodes. We are working on streamlining and expanding this to characterization of additional particle batches. We plan to submit this work for publication in spring 2026 as well. Thus, Milestone 4 is not completely achieved, but we are past the proof of concept stages of this work.
We have begun to establish our cell culture and calcium imaging protocols, but we are not at the nanoparticle testing stages yet.
