A NEWLY discovered class of magnetic materials could help to make electrical
transformers ultra-efficient, cutting the energy losses in devices ranging from
CD players to electricity sub-stations.
The new material is a “nanocomposite”. It is made up of submicroscopic
particles just 8 nanometres in diameter embedded in a solid matrix. Normally,
the particles are locked into the material and are unable to move. But Ron Ziolo
and his colleagues at the Xerox Laboratory for Magnetics Research at the
University of Barcelona have discovered a way of “unbonding” the particles so
that they can rotate freely in voids within the material.…
