What is the Difference Between Magnetostriction and Piezoelectric Effect

The key difference between magnetostriction and piezoelectric effect is that piezoelectric effect can cause the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy, whereas piezoelectric effect can convert the energy in a magnetic field into mechanical energy.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Magnetostriction
3. What is Piezoelectric Effect
4. Magnetostriction vs Piezoelectric Effect in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Magnetostriction vs Piezoelectric Effect

What is Magnetostriction?

Magnetostriction is a property of magnetic materials that can cause these materials to change their shape or dimension during the magnetization process. Typically, the magnetization of a material has variations, which occur due to the applied magnetic field that changes the magnetostriction strain until the saturation value is reached.

Magnetostriction vs Piezoelectric Effect in Tabular Form

Figure 01: A Transducer Composed of Magnetostrictive Materials

The effect of magnetostriction causes energy loss that happens due to the frictional heating in susceptible ferromagnetic cores. Moreover, this effect is responsible for the low-pitched humming sound that comes from transformers. This is because oscillating AC currents tend to produce a changing magnetic field.

Typically, a magnetic material has areas called domains, each having a uniform magnetization. If we apply a magnetic field, the boundaries between the domains tend to shift while the domains rotate. These two effects can cause a change in the dimensions of the material.

What is Piezoelectric Effect?

Piezoelectric refers to the property of certain solid materials that can accumulate the electric charge upon the application of mechanical stress. In other words, it refers to the electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat. This term originated from Greek, where piezin means squeeze or press and elektron means amber (an early source of electric charge). This property is named piezoelectricity, and the materials showing this property include crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bones, DNA, and various proteins.

Magnetostriction and Piezoelectric Effect -Side by Side Comparison

Figure 02: A Piezoelectric Balance

Typically, the piezoelectric effect can lead to the linear electromechanical interaction between the mechanical and electrical states in crystalline materials having no inversion symmetry. Moreover, this effect is reversible as materials that can show the piezoelectric effect can also exhibit the reverse of the effect (it is the generation of a mechanical strain that comes from an applied electrical field).

The nature of the piezoelectric effect is closely similar to that of the electric dipole moment in solids. We can easily calculate dipole density or polarization by summing up the dipole moments per volume of the crystallographic unit cell. Usually, neighboring dipoles tend to align in regions known as Weiss domains. This process of alignment is named poling, where a strong electric field is applied across the materials at elevated temperatures. However, all piezoelectric materials can not be poled.

What is the Difference Between Magnetostriction and Piezoelectric Effect?

Magnetostriction and piezoelectric effect are important chemical concepts. The key difference between magnetostriction and piezoelectric effect is that piezoelectric effect can cause the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy, whereas piezoelectric effect can convert the energy in a magnetic field into mechanical energy.

The below infographic presents the differences between magnetostriction and piezoelectric effect in tabular form for side by side comparison.

Summary – Magnetostriction vs Piezoelectric Effect

Magnetostriction is a property of magnetic materials that can cause these materials to change their shape or dimension during the magnetization process. Piezoelectric refers to the property of certain solid materials where these materials can accumulate the electric charge upon the application of mechanical stress. The key difference between magnetostriction and piezoelectric effect is that piezoelectric effect can cause the direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy, whereas piezoelectric effect can convert the energy in a magnetic field into mechanical energy.

Reference:

1. “Magnetostriction.” An Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Magnetostrictive transducer” By derivative work: Zureks (talk)Transducteur_magnetostrictif_annote.png: User:Syntex – Transducteur_magnetostrictif_annote.png (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia

2. “Piezoelectric balance presented by Pierre Curie to Lord Kelvin, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow” By Stephencdickson – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia