Electrorheological behaviour under oscillatory shear of TiO2 rod-like particles prepared via microwave-assisted molten-salt synthesis

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) rod-like particles were synthesized by a simple and rapid microwave-assisted molten-salt method. The X-ray diffraction analysis and electron microscopy provided information on particle composition and morphology, respectively. It was found that during the synthesis process the crystalline phase of TiO2 transformed from anatase into rutile while the morphology changed from nanospheres into micrometer sized rod-like particles. The electrorheological (ER) properties were investigated via oscillatory shear tests. It was found that TiO2 rod-like particles based silicone oil suspensions exhibited higher ER activity than those of original anatase TiO2 nanoparticles probably due to side-by-side solid friction between particles as well as shorter time of their polarization. The changes in ER properties of rod-like particle based suspensions as a function of the applied electric field strength and particles weight fraction were also investigated.