Abstract
We present a simple, low-cost, and environmental-friendly method for the fabrication of hybrid magnetorheological composites (hMCs) based on cotton fibers soaked with a mixture of silicone oil (SO), carbonyl iron (CI) microparticles, and iron oxide microfibers (F). The obtained hMCs, with various ratios () of SO and F, are used as dielectric materials for manufacturing electrical devices. The equivalent electrical capacitance and resistance are investigated in the presence of an external magnetic field, with flux density B. Based on the recorded data, we obtain the variation of the relative dielectric constant (), and electrical conductivity (), with , and B. We show that, by increasing , the distance between CI magnetic dipoles increases, and this leads to significant changes in the behaviour of and in a magnetic field. The results are explained by developing a theoretical model that is based on the dipolar approximation. They indicate that the obtained hMCs can be used in the fabrication of magneto-active fibers for fabrication of electric/magnetic field sensors and transducers.
Highlights
Composite materials are a class of materials that consist of two or more distinct phases with significantly different physical or chemical properties, such that, when combined, lead to a new material with enhanced properties as compared to those of each individual phase [1]
We present a simple, low-cost, and environmental-friendly method for the fabrication of hybrid magnetorheological composites based on cotton fibers soaked with a mixture of silicone oil (SO), carbonyl iron (CI) microparticles, and iron oxide microfibers
Due to the ever increasing needs of technologies related to automobile, aerospace, or bio-medicine industries, in the last years the attention of scientific community has been largely focused on synthesis, characterization and application of smart composites, i.e., composites whose properties are largely influenced when exposed to an external magnetic field [7,8,9]
Summary
Composite materials are a class of materials that consist of two or more distinct phases with significantly different physical or chemical properties, such that, when combined, lead to a new material with enhanced properties as compared to those of each individual phase [1]. The most composites consist of a continuous phase (e.g., metal or a polymer matrix) reinforced with a second phase in the form of a powder (e.g., fibers, particles, flakes), novel synthesis methods [2,3,4,5,6] allow a fine-tuning of the morphology of each phase, their relative proportion, distribution or crystallinity, greatly extending the range of possible applications. The application of MCs as sensors and transducers has become a hot research topic [16,17,18,19] due to their high socio-economic impact and the rapid development of various fabrication methods, including three-dimensional (3D) printing [20,21,22] or magnetorheological drawing lithography [23]. An excellent review in which some perspectives in the development of wearable polymer-based sensors are described has recently been published in Ref. [24]
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