Abstract: Recent studies indicated the electrorhological (ER) effect of the ER fluids with flower-like particles were more significant than those with traditional sphere particles, but whether the special morphology can enhance the properties of magnetorheological (MR) fluids remains unclear. To address the issue, flower-like cobalt particles (FCP) and sphere cobalt particles (SCP) were synthesized, and the properties of the two kinds of MR fluids with the two kinds of particles were compared. Particle characterization results indicate the two kinds of particles have significant difference in morphology, but little difference in crystal structure, particle size, and magnetic properties. The FCP based MR fluids (FCP-MRFs) present higher zero-field viscosity, higher field-induced yield stress, higher storage modulus and better sedimentation stability than the SCP based samples (SCP-MRFs). The high performance of the FCP-MRF can be attributed to the special morphology of the flower-like particles.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-665X/aa57cc