Study of PDMS based magnetorheological elastomers

The fabrication of conventional magnetorheological elastomers (MRE) is usually taken more than 1 day because the conventional matrixes such as natural rubber and silicone rubber need long curing time to become solid state. This study presents a rapid method for fabricating MRE within 90 minutes by using poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as the matrix thanks to the rapid curing of PDMS in high temperature. A total of four PDMS based MRE samples were fabricated. Their mechanical and rheological properties under both steady-state and dynamic loading conditions were tested with a parallel-plate rheometer. Additionally, the microstructures of the PDMS based MREs were also observed by SEM and compared with the silicone rubber based MRE.