Magnetorheological materials based on ethylene-octene elastomer

Abstract

Magnetorheological elastomer composites based on several magnetoactive fillers such as: carbonyl iron powder, gamma iron oxide, micro- and nano-sized Fe3O4 in ethylene-octene elastomer are reported and studied. To improve the dispersion of the applied fillers in a polymer matrix, ionic liquids were added during the process of composite preparation. To align the particles in the elastomer, the crosslinking process took place in a magnetic field. The effect of the amount of ferromagnetic particles and their arrangement on the microstructure and properties in relation to the external magnetic field was examined. It was found that the microstructure isotropy and anisotropy has a significant effect on the properties of the magnetorheological elastomers. Moreover, different amounts of magnetoactive fillers influence the mechanical properties (increase the tensile strength) of the composites compared to unfilled samples. The magnetic flux directed parallel to the sample surface increases the saturation magnetization of the composites. Magnetic anisotropy can also be seen by analyzing the shape of magnetization curves — steeper curves obtained for anisotropic samples support the hypothesis of a specific arrangement of the filler particles in the elastomer. The addition of ionic liquids improve the dispersion of the applied magnetoactive fillers (CIP and g-Fe2O3) in the elastomer matrix, which in turn favorably affected the network density, tensile properties and magnetorheological effect of the composites.