Influence of liquid phase on nanoparticle-based giant electrorheological fluid.

We show that the chemical structures of silicone oils can have an important role in the giant electrorheological (GER) effect. The interaction between silicone oils and solid nanoparticles is found to significantly influence the ER effect. By increasing the kinematic viscosity of silicone oils, which is a function of siloxane chain length, sol-like, gel-like and clay-like appearances of the constituted ER fluids were observed. Different functional-group-terminated silicone oils were also employed as the dispersing media. Significant differences of yield stress were found. We systematically study the effect of siloxane chain lengths on the permeability of oils traveling through the porous spaces between the particles (using the Washburn method), oils adsorbed on the particles' surface (using FT-IR spectra), as well as their particle size distribution (using dynamic light scattering). Our results indicate the hydrogen bonds are instrumental in linking the silicone oil to GER solid particles, and long chain lengths can enhance the agglomeration of the GER nanoparticles to form large clusters. An optimal oil structure, with hydroxyl-terminated silicone oil and a suitable viscosity, was chosen which can create the highest yield stress of ∼300 kPa under a 5 kV mm(-1) DC electric field.