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.