A research group led by Professor Shinichi Ohkoshi of the University of Tokyo has succeeded in developing a nano-sized hard ferrite magnet made of iron oxide.If this is used, it may be possible to increase the capacity of magnetic recording media such as magnetic tapes and hard disks.
Due to the high performance of digital products, the size of data such as photographs is becoming huge.In addition, as the number of Internet users increases, the demand for storage and analysis of huge amounts of data, so-called big data, will increase in order to investigate the trends of people.Along with this, the capacity of recording media required is increasing, but there are concerns about environmental pollution and cost increase because the current hard disks use expensive metal elements that are harmful to living organisms.From this point of view, it is required to develop a large-capacity recording material that can be made from low-priced and safe materials.Ferrite magnets made from iron oxide are suitable for mass production because they are inexpensive and have little impact on living organisms.However, if the size is reduced, the properties as a magnet are lost, so it was not suitable for magnetic recording media that require extremely small size and high density.
Professor Ogoshi and his colleagues succeeded in producing 7.5 nm (1 nanometer = 0.0000000001 m) particles while preserving the properties of magnets by wrapping iron compounds, which are the material of iron oxide, in glass and performing heat treatment. ..It is overwhelmingly smaller than the minimum size of ferrite magnets known so far, and has the magnetic strength required for recording.From this, we can expect an increase in the capacity of the magnetic recording medium.
Professor Ogoshi and his colleagues succeeded in producing 7.5 nm (1 nanometer = 0.0000000001 m) particles while preserving the properties of magnets by wrapping iron compounds, which are the material of iron oxide, in glass and performing heat treatment. ..It is overwhelmingly smaller than the minimum size of ferrite magnets known so far, and has the magnetic strength required for recording.From this, we can expect an increase in the capacity of the magnetic recording medium.
If this magnet is used, even if the amount of digital data recorded increases in the future, it may be possible to handle it at low cost without burdening the environment.In addition to magnetism, it has some unique properties and is expected to be used for other purposes.
