Magneto-rheological response of elastomer composites with hybrid-magnetic fillers

We study the magneto-rheological response of hybrid-magnetic elastomer composites consisting of two different magnetic filler particles at fixed overall concentration. Thereby, we focus on an optimization of mechanical and magnetic properties by combining highly reinforcing magnetic nano-particles (MagSilica) with micro-sized carbonyl-iron particles (CIP), which exhibit high switch ability in a magnetic field. We observe a symbiotic interaction of both filler types, especially in the case when an orientation of the magnetic filler particles is achieved due to curing in an external magnetic field. The orientation effect is significant only for the micro-sized CIP particles with high saturation magnetization, indicating that the induced magnetic moment for the nano-sized particles is too small for delivering sufficient attraction between the particles in an external magnetic field. A pronounced switching behavior is observed for the non-cross-linked melts with 15 and 20 vol.% CIP, whereby the small strain modulus increases by more than 50%. For the sample without the coupling agent silane, one even observes a relative modulus increase of about 140%, which can be related to the combined effect of a higher mobility of the particles without a silane layer and the ability of the particles to come in close contact when they are arranged in strings along the field lines. For the cross-linked samples, a maximum switching effect of about 30% is achieved for the system with pure CIP. This magneto-sensitivity decreases successively if CIP is replaced by MagSilica, while the tensile strength of the systems increases significantly. The use of silane reduces the switching effect, but it is necessary for a good mechanical performance by delivering strong chemical bonding of the magnetic filler particles to the polymer matrix. (paper)