The electrorheological response behavior of small coral-like H2Ti2O5@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles

Abstract

BackgroundElectrorheological (ER) fluid is an important smart material that can respond to external electric field. The purpose of this work is to synthesize stronger ER nanomaterial. MethodIn this work, small coral-like H2Ti2O5 particles were prepared by hydrothermal method, SiO2 was uniformly grown on H2Ti2O5 through controlled hydrolysis, and H2Ti2O5@SiO2 core-shell nanocomposite was synthesized and used as ER material. The morphological evolution, structure and chemical composition of materials were studied by Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). At the same time, dielectric and ER measurement results confirm that H2Ti2O5@SiO2 core-shell-based ER fluid has higher polarization strength and proper dielectric relaxation, which improves interface polarization and ER characteristics. ResultsThe ER results show that the ER efficiency after SiO2 coating is significantly improved, especially under higher applied electric field strength: when the voltage is 3 kV and the shear rate is 0.1 s−1, the ER efficiency can reach 160.84. Dielectric spectroscopy results show that H2Ti2O5@SiO2 fluid has a fast response time and a large difference in dielectric constant. It is a promising ER fluid material.