THE EFFECT OF POLYANILINE CONTENT DEPOSITED ON SILICA GEL PARTICLES ON THE ELECTRORHEOLOGY OF SILICONE-OIL SUSPENSIONS

Investigation of the electrorheological effect of silicone-oil suspensions of silica particles coated with polyaniline base in a DC electric field revealed that breaking stress, as a criterion the intensity of the electrorheological phenomenon, steeply increased at first with coating thickness. At relatively low polyaniline content (volume fraction ≈ 0.05), it has reached a value several times higher than that with suspension of pure silica. Then they became virtually constant or slightly increased. The frequency spectra of dielectric characteristics of these systems reflect high relaxation times. The results suggest that the interfacial polarization of particles is predominantly controlled by polarizability of their surface layer, and the influence of the thickness is of secondary importance.