Soft rubber as a magnetoelectric material—Generating electricity from the remote action of a magnetic field

A magnetoelectric material is capable of converting a magnetic field into electricity. Wireless energy harvesting, drug delivery via remote action, multiple state memories are just some of the possible applications of this phenomenon. The magnetoelectric property is however rare and restricted either to certain hard exotic crystals that satisfy a stringent set of material symmetry constraints or painstakingly fabricated (still hard) composites. Soft materials that are capable of large deformations and are also magnetoelectric, do not exist. In this work, based on a simple mechanism predicated on a coupling facilitated by the universal electromagnetic Maxwell stress, deformability of soft matter and the embedding and stabilization of external charges, we experimentally demonstrate the transformation of silicone rubber into hitherto softest magnetoelectric material. Our material exhibits a room-temperature magnetoelectric coefficient as high as 193mVcm^-1Oe^-1 at the magnetic field of ≈600Oe and the low frequency of ≈1Hz. This rivals the performance of some of the best single phase and composite materials but with a capability of significant deformation.