TITLE:
Facile Synthesis of Polypyrrole/Titanate Core-Shell Nanorods and Their Electrorheological Characteristics
AUTHORS:
Jiexu Zhang, Ying He, Lijun Ji
KEYWORDS:
Polypyrrole, Titanate Nanorods, Conducting Composite, Electrorheological Fluid, Viscoelastic Properties
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.2 No.2,
February
25,
2011
ABSTRACT: In this work, polypyrrole (PPy)/titanate (TN) composite nanorods were successfully synthesized using cetyl trimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-directing agent by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization. The structural characterization indicated that the new composite rods were core (TN)-shell (PPy) nanostructure with the average diameter in the range of 250-300 nm. Further, this semiconducting composite can be used as a dispersed phase in silicone oil for a new electrorheological (ER) fluid, and its ER behavior was investigated under steady and oscillatory shear. It was found that the PPy/TN fluid showed typical ER characteristics under an external electric field.