João Cunha de Sequeira Amaral

Assistant Researcher

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Department

  • Physics
  • 13.2.2.2

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Short CV

João Amaral was awarded his PhD. in Physics in 2009 at the University of Aveiro (UA), and currently holds a permanent position as Assistant Researcher at the Associated Laboratory CICECO at UA. He has dedicated most of his scientific career to the to the study of magnetism and magnetic materials, with particular focus in energy applications. He is co-author of over 100 scopus-indexed peer-reviewed scientific publications, with over 2000 citations and an h-index of 24. He was the invited Editor of Special Issues in AIP Advances (American Institute of Physics), Frontiers in Energy Research (Frontiers) and Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (Elsevier).

He was the main supervisor of two PhD. students (finished 2020 and 2021), and is currently the main supervisor of three PhD. students (two with FCT funding) and the co-supervisor of another. He has coordinated competitive funded projects, including two FCT Exploratory Research Projects, an FCT-DAAD bi-lateral project with partner TU Darmstadt Germany, the local PI of an FCT IC&DT project, a national advanced computational research project, an EuroHPC computational project (850k CPU hours), was one of the seven research line coordinators of the 18M€ Bosch Thermotechnology - University of Aveiro Smart Green Homes Project and is the local PI of the recently approved EIC Pathfinder project MAGCCINE on magnetic refrigeration for vaccines.

He was an invited researcher at the EXSS group at Imperial College London from 2013-2015, collaborating with multiple national and international research groups throughout his career, while prioritizing the mobility and internationalization of his research team. He is currently the coordinator of CICECO Group 2: Photonic, Electronic and Magnetic Materials.

Present projects

Principal Investigator of the FCT Exploratory Research Project "Exploring nano-fabrication methods of high coercivity rare-earth free Si-Alnico permanent magnets" (EXPL/CTM-NAN/1614/2013) [more info at the FCT web page]

Task leader of the FCT SR&TD Project of consolidation of research skills and resources "Facing the challenges of characterizing novel thermal materials and processes (Heat@UA)" (RECI/CTM-CER/0336/2012).

Selected Publications

"Magnetovolume Effects in Heusler Compounds via First-Principles Calculations", J. N. Gonçalves, J. S. Amaral and V. S. Amaral, IEEE Trans. Magn. 50 1301104 (2014) [DOI].

"Thermodynamics of the 2D Ising model from a random path sampling method", J. S. Amaral, J. N. Gonçalves and V. S. Amaral, IEEE Trans. Magn. 50 1002204 (2014) [DOI].

"Disorder effects in giant magnetocaloric materials", J. S. Amaral and V. S. Amaral; Phys. Stat. Sol. A 211 971 (2014) [DOI].

"Strain induced enhanced ferromagnetic behavior in inhomogeneous low doped La0.95Sr0.05MnO3+delta", S. Das, J. S. Amaral, et al.; Appl. Phys. Lett. 102 112408 (2013) [DOI].

"On the Curie temperature dependency of the Magnetocaloric effect", J. H. Belo, J. S. Amaral, et al.; Appl. Phys. Lett. 100 242407 (2012) [DOI].

"Handling mixed-state magnetization data for magnetocaloric studies - a solution to achieve realistic entropy behaviour", S. Das, J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 43 152002 (2010) [DOI].

"On estimating the magnetocaloric effect from magnetization measurements", J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; J. Magn. Magn. Mat. 322 1552 (2009) [DOI].

"The effect of magnetic irreversibility on estimating the magnetocaloric effect from magnetization measurements", J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; Appl. Phys. Lett. 94 042506 (2009) [DOI].

"The effect of chemical distribution on the magnetocaloric effect: A case study in second-order phase transition manganites", J. S. Amaral, P. B. Tavares, et al., Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 354 (47-51), 5301-5303 (2008) [DOI].

"A mean-field scaling method for first- and second-order phase transition ferromagnets and its application in magnetocaloric studies", J. S. Amaral, N. J. O. Silva, V. S. Amaral; Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 172503 (2007) [DOI].

"Magnetocaloric effect in Er and Eu-substituted ferromagnetic La-Sr Manganites", J. S. Amaral, M. S. Reis, et al.; J. Magn. Magn. Mat. 290 686 (2005) [DOI].

Ongoing Supervisions

André Filipe Castanheira Horta

PhD Student

Henrique Berganton de Souza

PhD Student

Rodrigo Kiefe Soares de Oliveira

PhD Student

Projects

Clean and efficient cooling in vaccine transportation using Rotating Magnetocaloric Effect (MAGCCINE )

Local CoordinatorEuropean Comission
Every year 1.5 million lives are lost worldwide due to insufficient access to vaccination while, paradoxically, over 50% of all produced vaccines are wasted, mostly due to ineffective temperature control during storage/transportation. The major challenges of the vaccine cold chain are the evermore strict limitations imposed on their aer...

Demagnetizing-based magnetocaloric refrigeration (MAGCAL)

Local CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Magnetocaloric refrigeration Permanent magnets Modeling Machine learning

Development of SMART nanostructured layers for sensing corrosion in AQUAtic structures (SMARTAQUA)

PartnerFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Corrosion is a result of thermodynamically-driven processed which occur due to the interaction of active metal alloys with the surrounding environment, leading to the degradation of metallic structures. The problem is particularly relevant in maritime offshore structures due to aggressive conditions such as high salinity and humidity. Although t...

Exploratory Research Project: João Amaral (IF/01089/2015)

CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Exploring nano-fabrication methods of high coercivity rare-earth free Si-Alnico permanent magnets (EXPL/CTM-NAN/1614/2013)

CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Permanent Magnets Nano-fabrication Magnetic Coercivity Strategic resource sustainability

Publications

Remote-Controlled Magnetic Stimulation of Cell-Based Bioengineered Tissues for In Situ Bone Regeneration

Santos, LF; Mendes, MC; Pereira, JA; Dias, IR; Viegas, CA; Amorim, CO; Amaral, JS; Nogueira, LP; Hauge, HJ; Silva, AS; Mano, JF
2025, ADVANCED MATERIALS, 37, 39.

Magnetic MoS2-Fe3O4 nanocomposites for dual-function adsorption and photocatalytic removal of acetamiprid from water

Amaral, LO; Ortiz-Bustos, J; Horta, AC; Amaral, JS; Gómez-Ruiz, S; del Hierro, I; Daniel-da-Silva, AL
2025, SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, 377.

Magnetic and structural dynamics of first-order phase transition in giant magnetocaloric Fe49Rh51

Beleza, AA; Andrade, L; Soares, AMR; Padron-Alemán, K; Hernández, MLA; Abeykoon, AMM; Evans, JSO; dos Santos, AM; Almeida, R; Araújo, JP; Dempseyb, N; Amarali, JS; Alvarez-Alonso, P; Llamazares, JLS; Belo, JH
2025, JOURNAL OF ALLOYS AND COMPOUNDS, 1049.

Quantum caloric effects

Cruz, C; Amaral, JS; Reis, M
2025, QUANTUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 10, 3.

Novel red mud waste-derived magnetic geopolymer spheres, made without the addition of any extra iron compounds, for the removal of wastewater contaminants

Gameiro, T; Carvalheiras, J; Gonçalves, NPF; Amaral, JS; Pullar, RC; Labrincha, JA; Novais, RM
2025, JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 377.

In-plane thermal anisotropy of natural cork and its variability

Santos, T; Amaral, JS; Amaral, VS; Costa, VAF
2025, MEASUREMENT, 242.

Direct measurements of the conventional and rotational magnetocaloric effects in Gd thick films

Pereira, CS; Almeida, R; Niehoff, T; Kiefe, R; Fontana, E; Silva, DJ; Gottschall, T; Wosnitza, J; Devillers, T; Dempsey, NM; Amaral, JS; Belo, JH
2025, JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS, 58, 7.

Energetic comparison of rotation and translation processes in magnetic refrigeration

de Souza, HB; Kiefe, R; Amaral, JS
2025, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, 127, 17.

Solid-state magnetic refrigerator based on the demagnetizing effect

Fernandes, CR; Almeida, R; Amaral, JS; Belo, JH; Ventura, JO; Silva, DJ
2025, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION, 178, 272-279.

FEMCE - A 3D finite element simulation tool for magnetic refrigerants

Kiefe, R; Amaral, JS
2025, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFRIGERATION, 173, 180-184.

Synthesis and Characterisation of Magnetoelectric Ceramic Composites based on M-type Strontium and Barium Hexagonal Ferrites and Barium Titanate

In Jotania, RB; Mahmood, SH (Eds.), MAGNETIC OXIDES AND COMPOSITES
Medeiros, MSA; Amaral, JS; Pullar, RC
2018, 1-48, MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551 USA, MATERIALS RESEARCH FORUM LLC.
ISBN: 00433396700001

The Mean-Field Theory in the Study of Ferromagnets and the Magnetocaloric Effect

In Juan Carlos Moreno-Piraján (Eds.), Thermodynamics - Systems in Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium
Amaral J S , Das S ,Amaral V S
2011, Rijeka, InTech.
ISBN: 978-953-307-283-8

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