Magnetorheological fluid based on thixotropic PTFE-oil organogel

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) micropowders were employed in this work to fabricate PTFE-oil organogel, then carbonyl iron particles were dispersed in this thixotropic organogel to prepare magnetorheological fluids without any other additives. By performing a comparative investigation of MRFs’ performances, enhanced magnetorheological response, suspension stability and tribological performance were obtained contrast to pure silicon oil based MRFs. The experimental results revealed a changeable viscosity of organogel, considerable increases in thixotropy also can be observed with the increase of PTFE content. Sedimentation tests demonstrated a much better suspension stability of MRFs based on organogel, suggesting that the internal network microstructures formed by hydrogen bonds between PTFE microparticles and oil molecular chains are likely to impose the gaps among magnetic particles thus hinder the particle aggregation and sedimentation. Moreover, a critical PTFE volume fraction about 4.7 vol% was recognized in this study, lower content organogels tended to display enhanced yield stresses contrast to pure silicon oil based MRFs while high content organogels showed slightly lower ones. It may suggest a compromise between nonmagnetic particle adsorption and the reinforcement effect of network microstructures. The adsorption is likely to decrease the saturation magnetization of carbonyl iron particles and to hinder the formation of field-induced chains, however, the reinforcement effect tends to strengthen these magnetic chains. Besides, the tribological tests confirmed the lubricant effects of PTFE-oil organogel by acquiring rather sharp decreases in friction coefficients of organogel based MRFs especially in the presence of magnetic field.