Flexible Bacterial Cellulose Permalloy nanocomposite xerogel sheets size scalable magnetic actuator cum electrical conductor

Abstract

Permalloy nanoparticles containing bacterial cellulose hydrogel obtained after reduction was compressed into a xerogel flexible sheet by hot pressing at 60 C at different pressures. The permalloy nanoparticles with an ordered structure have a bimodal size distribution centered around 25 nm and 190 nm. The smaller nanoparticles are superparamagnetic while the larger particles are ferromagnetic at room temperature. The sheets have a room temperature magnetisation of 20 emu/g and a coercivity of 32 Oe. The electrical conductivity of the flexible sheets increases with hot pressing pressure from 7 S/cm to 40 S/cm at room temperature.