Synthesis, characterization and magnetorheological study of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-modified Fe3O4nanoparticles

In this study, monodisperse Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized successfully using a sonochemical method in the presence of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The morphology, microstructure and magnetic properties of the bare Fe3O4 and APTES-coated Fe3O4 were investigated in detail by TEM, XRD, FTIR and SQUID. It was found that APTES-coated Fe3O4 showed relatively good dispersion with a narrow size distribution of 8.4 ± 2.1 nm diameter. The functionalization of Fe3O4 was proved to be covalent linking between Fe3O4 and APTES. The field-dependent magnetization curve indicated superparamagnetic behavior of Fe3O4-APTES with a saturation magnetization (Ms) of 70.5 emu g−1 at room temperature. A magnetorheological (MR) fluid was prepared using the obtained Fe3O4-APTES nanoparticles with 25 wt% particles, and its MR properties were tested using a Physica MCR301 rheometer fitted with an MRmodule. The results showed that the as-prepared APTES-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticle-based MR fluid exhibited typical MR effects, with increasing viscosity, shear stress and yield stress depending on the applied magnetic field strength.