Magnetostriction Enhancement in Midrange Modulus Magnetorheological Elastomers for Sensor Applications

Magnetorheological elastomer (MRE), which is capable of exhibiting magnetostriction in the presence of a magnetic field, has a great potential to be used for the development of sensor devices. Unfortunately, to date, many works focused on studying low modulus of MRE (less than 100 kPa) which can hamper their potential application in sensors due to short lifespan and low durability. Thus, in this work, MRE with storage modulus above 300 kPa is to be developed to enhance magnetostriction magnitude and reaction force (normal force). To achieve this goal, MREs are prepared with various compositions of carbonyl iron particles (CIPs), in particular, MRE with 60, 70 and 80 wt.% of CIP. It is shown that both the magnetostriction percentage and normal force increment are achieved as the concentration of CIPs increases. The highest magnetostriction magnitude of 0.075% is obtained with 80 wt.% of CIP, and this increment is higher than that of moderate stiffness MRE developed in the previous works. Therefore, the midrange range modulus MRE developed in this work can copiously produce the required magnetostriction value and potentially be implemented for the design of forefront sensor technology.