Effect of Petroleum-Based Oil Towards Physicochemical Properties of Natural Rubber-Based Magnetorheological Elastomers

This study presents an investigation of the effect of magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) using petroleum based-oil (PBO) as dispersing aids. The inhomogeneous dispersion and mobility of magnetic particles within the elastomer matrix result in poor MREs performance. Isotropic natural rubber (NR) based MREs were fabricated by homogeneously mixed with the addition of different ratios of naphthenic oil (NO) to aromatic oil (AO), whereby NO 1(100:0), NO 2 (70:30), NO 3 (50:50), and NO 4 (30:70), correspondingly. The cure characteristics, morphological, magnetic properties and thermal analyses were conducted. Based on the results, NO 1 leads the best results for microstructure observation and magnetic properties of the MREs. Meanwhile, NO 2 mixed with AO showed an improvement in curing characteristics and thermal analyses compared to other samples. In summary, the ratio of NO 1 and NO 2 is considered the preferable dispersing aids for MREs compared to NO 3 and NO 4 due to the structural compound in the oil that enhanced the characteristics of the NR-based MREs.