Electro-rheological properties of montmorillonite particles coated with titania in methyl silicone oil

Montmorillonite particles coated with titania were synthesized by means of a sol-gel method to use with elec-tro-rheological material. The characteristics of these composite particles were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron mi-croscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The electro-rheological (ER) effects were measured after these particles were mixed with methyl-silicon oil by 20% and 30% (weight percent). The experimental results show that these montmorillonite/titania particles exhibit a marked ER effect compared with pure montmorillonite particles under a DC electric field. The highest static yield stress is up to 4.28 kPa, which is an increase of about 3.13 kPa over that of untreated montmorillonite pow-der under the electrical field strength of 3.2 kV/mm at room temperature.