Enhancement of Isotropic Magnetorheological Elastomer Properties by Silicone Oil

This article focused on the influence of additional silicone oil as an plasticizer additive in a magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) upon its rheological properties. Here, a silicone rubber is used as a base material of the MRE with CIPs act as the filler. Silicone oil (SO) as a plasticizer is added to the base ingredients to improve the viscosity and dispersion of magnetic particles and enhance the MRE properties. Various tests comprised of magnetic, morphology, and rheology tests were conducted for MRE characterization purpose. The results showed that the addition of SO on the MRE had increased 19% of magnetic properties compared to non-SO based MRE. Dispersion of magnetic particles is improved by the addition of SO as observed through Low Vacuum Scanning Electron Microscope (LVSEM). In rheology test, both absolute and relative MR effects were increased by 0.3 MPa and 343%, respectively, with the incorporation of 15 wt% SO. The introduction of SO has proven to resolve the agglomeration issues in isotropic MRE which degrade performances of MRE application devices and systems.