Selective Heating Mechanism of Magnetic Metal Oxides by Alternating Magnetic Field in Microwave Sintering Process

TL;DR

This study uncovers the mechanism behind rapid, selective microwave heating of magnetic metal oxides, showing it results from non-resonant electron spin responses that peak near the Curie temperature, with implications for material processing.

Contribution

The paper introduces a theoretical model explaining microwave heating in magnetic metal oxides through non-resonant spin responses, extending understanding beyond the Curie temperature.

Findings

Heating peaks around the Curie temperature for magnetite.

Hematite exhibits less microwave response due to weak magnetization.

Oxygen defects enable microwave heating in titanium oxide.

Abstract

The mechanism of rapid and selective heating of magnetic metal oxides under the magnetic field of microwaves which continues beyond the Curie temperature $ T_{c} $ is identified by using the Heisenberg model. Monte Carlo calculations based on the energy principle show that such heating is caused by non-resonant response of electron spins in the unfilled 3d shell to the wave magnetic field. Small spin reorientation thus generated leads to a large internal energy change through the exchange interactions between spins, which becomes maximal around $ T_{c} $ for magnetite $ {\rm Fe}_{3}{\rm O}_{4} $. The dissipative spin dynamics simulation yields the imaginary part of the magnetic susceptibility, which becomes largest around $ T_{c} $ and for the microwave frequency around 2 GHz. Hematite $ {\rm Fe}_{2}{\rm O}_{3} $ with weak spontaneous magnetization responds much less to microwaves as observed in experiments. The heating of titanium oxide by microwave magnetic field only when oxygen defects are present is also explained by our theory in terms of the absence of spontaneous magnetization.