Document Type
Article
Version
Final Published Version
Publication Title
APL Materials
Volume
10
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Ultrasoft magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) offer convenient real-time magnetic field control of mechanical properties that provides a means to mimic mechanical cues and regulators of cells in vitro. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of polymer stiffness on magnetization reversal of MREs using a combination of magnetometry measurements and computational modeling. Poly-dimethylsiloxane- based MREs with Young’s moduli that range over two orders of magnitude were synthesized using commercial polymers SylgardTM 527, Sylgard 184, and carbonyl iron powder. The magnetic hysteresis loops of the softer MREs exhibit a characteristic pinched loop shape with almost zero remanence and loop widening at intermediate fields that monotonically decreases with increasing polymer stiffness. A simple two-dipole model that incorporates magneto-mechanical coupling not only confirms that micrometer-scale particle motion along the applied magnetic field direction plays a defining role in the magnetic hysteresis of ultrasoft MREs but also reproduces the observed loop shapes and widening trends for MREs with varying polymer stiffnesses.
Citation
Clark, A. T., Marchfield, D., Cao, Z., Dang, T., Tang, N., Gilbert, D., Corbin, E. A., Buchanan K. S., and X. M. Cheng. 2022. "The effect of polymer stiffness on magnetization reversal of magnetorheological elastomers." APL Materials 10: 041106.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0086761
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.