A Novel Mechanism of Electrorheological Effect in Polymer Blends

We present a novel mechanism of an electrorheological (ER) effect found in a polymer blend of a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) with high viscosity and a polydimethylsiloxane (DMS) with low viscosity. In this type of ER fluid thin layers of DMS are formed between the parallel plates of a viscometer and so the blends separated by them can slide on each other, resulting in the decrease of the apparent viscosity. Under an electric field, on the other hand, the area of the layers decreases and thus the ER effect appears.