3.1. Investigation of the complex magnetic permeability
The frequency dependence of real (
μ′) and imaginary (
μ″) components of the complex magnetic permeability of the all samples, over the frequency range 500 Hz to 2 MHz was measured using an Agilent LCR-meter (E-4980A type) in conjunction with a coil containing the sample, by means of the following relationships [
24]:
In Eq. (1), (
R0, X0) and (
R, X), represent the resistance and inductive reactance, measured with RLC-meter in the absence and in the presence of the sample inside the measuring coil, respectively. The obtained results for the composite samples are presented in
Figure 3.
From
Figure 3 a) and b) it is observed that, at a constant value
φ of the volume fraction, the real component,
μ′ of the complex magnetic permeability remains approximately constant with the frequency change. Also, for all samples,
μ′ increases by increasing the volume fraction,
φ of the magnetite particles dispersed in the composite. It should be noted that the values μ′ corresponding to samples A
h, B
h and C
h (
Figure 3b)) obtained in the presence of the magnetic field
H, are higher than those corresponding to samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 (
Figure 3 a)), obtained in the absence of the magnetic field
H, at all values
φ of the volume fraction. This result shows that the preparation of such samples by mixing a ferrofluid with silicone rubber in the presence of an external magnetic field,
H leads to obtaining composite samples with improved magnetic properties, that can be controlled by magnetic field,
H and volume fraction,
φ.
The imaginary component,
μ″ of the complex magnetic permeability has a maximum (
Figure 3) at a frequency
fmax, for each composite sample, which moves to higher values of frequency by increasing the volume fraction, φ. The presence of maximum of
μ″(f) means that all composite samples (A
0, B
0, C
0) and (A
h, B
h, C
h), exhibit a relaxation process in the investigated frequency range, characterized by a relaxation time,
τ. From Debye's theory [
25], it is known that the relaxation time
τ is related to the frequency
fmax at which
μ″ is maximum, by the relation:
Considering the experimental values
fmax, from Figs. 3 a) and b) and using Eq. (2), the corresponding values of the relaxation times were computed, resulting in the following values:
τ(A0)=9.18 μs,
τ(B0)=7.46 μs and
τ(C0)=7.05 μs, for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 and
τ(Ah)=10.88 μs,
τ(Bh)=7.96 μs and
τ(Ch)=7.35 μs, for samples A
h, B
h and C
h, respectively. The dependence on the volume fraction, φ of the obtained relaxation times,
τ is shown in
Figure 4.
The obtained maxima of
μ″, from Figs. 3 a) and b), could be attributed to either Néel relaxation process or to Brownian relaxation process. In the case of Neel relaxation process, the magnetic moments of the particles rotate inside the particles and the particles remain fixed in the composite [
26], the relaxation time, τ
N is given by the relation:
The Brownian relaxation process, is correlated to the particle’s rotation, or rotation of particle aggregates, in the carrier liquid [
26], being characterized by Brownian relaxation time
τB and is given by the equation:
In the equations (3) and (4),
K is the magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant of particles;
Vm is the magnetic volume of a particle and
τ0 is a constant having the value 10
-9 s [
26,
27];
k is the Boltzmann constant;
T is the absolute temperature;
η is the dynamic viscosity of the carrier liquid and
Dh is the hydrodynamic diameter of the particle or the hydrodynamic diameter of the aggregate.
Assuming that the relaxation process is of Néel type and using the
dm value of the mean magnetic diameter of particles, obtained from the magnetization curve,
dm=11.76 nm (
Figure 2), the anisotropy constant,
K can be computed from Eq. (3) for all samples. The values found are:
K(A0)=4.46·104 J/m3,
K(B0)=4.36·104 J/m3 and
K(C0)=4.33·104 J/m3 for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 and
K(Ah)=4.54·104 J/m3,
K(Bh)=4.38·104 J/m3 and
K(Ch)=4.35·104 J/m3 for samples A
h, B
h and C
h, respectively. These obtained values for the anisotropy constant
K of the magnetite particles from the investigated composite samples are much higher than the values of the constant
K which are in the range (1.1∙10
4 - 1.5∙10
4) J/m
3 [
28,
29]. As a result, taking into account this result, it follows that the relaxation process corresponding to the maxima of the imaginary component
μ″, from
Figure 3, cannot be attributed to a Néel relaxation process.
If we assume that the relaxation process is Brownian, replacing in equation (4) the values of the relaxation time corresponding to all the investigated composite samples and considering the value η=1.2·10-3 Pa·s, for the viscosity of the carrier liquid (kerosene), we could determine the hydrodynamic diameter Dh of the particles in the samples. The values obtained are: Dh,A0=27.13 nm, Dh,B0=25.32 nm and Dh,C0=24.84 nm for the samples A0, B0 and C0 and Dh,Ah=28.71 nm, Dh,Bh=25.87 nm and Dh,Ch=25.20 nm, for the samples Ah, Bh and Ch, respectively.
Figure 1 shows that the ferrofluid droplet inserts are present in all samples with the observation that for the samples polymerized in the magnetic field these inserts are elongated along the magnetic field lines. Therefore, the values determined for the hydrodynamic diameter
Dh show that in all samples, aggregates of 2-3 particles rotate as a single structure in the carrier liquid of ferrofluid, within the droplet inserts from the composite. So, the maximum of the imaginary component
μ″ from
Figure 3 a) and b) is due to the Brownian relaxation process in the composite and that the ferrofluid droplet inserts are still present in the composite after polymerization.
3.2. Investigation of the complex dielectric permittivity
The real component,
ε′ and imaginary component,
ε″ of the complex dielectric permittivity, were determined over the frequency range (500 Hz - 2 MHz). For this, each composite sample was placed in a planar capacitor with circular plates having the diameter of 4 cm and a distance between the plates,
d=1 mm. The capacitor was connected to a RLC-meter. For a fixed frequency,
f, the RLC-meter indicates the resistance,
R and the reactance,
X in the presence of the composite sample in the capacitor, respectively the resistance,
R0 and the reactance,
X0 in the absence of the sample in the capacitor. The components ε′ and ε″ of the complex dielectric permittivity, were determined with the relations [
30,
31]:
Figure 5 shows the frequency dependence of the real (ε') and imaginary (ε'') components, in the frequency range (500 Hz - 2 MHz) at different values of volume fraction, φ of particles.
As can be observed in figure 5 a) and b), at a constant value
φ of the volume fraction, the real component ε′ of the complex dielectric permittivity remains approximately constant with the frequency change. Also, one can be observed that
ε′ increases from 2.3 to 2.9 (for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0,
Figure 5 a)) and from 2.0 to 2.6 (for samples A
h, B
h and C
h Figure 5 b)), by increasing the volume fraction,
φ, from 1.31% to 3.84%. The values
ε′ corresponding to samples A
h, B
h and C
h (
Figure 5b)) obtained in the presence of the magnetic field
H, are lower than those corresponding to samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 (
Figure 5 a)), obtained in the absence of the magnetic field
H, at all values,
φ of the volume fraction.
For a constant value
φ, of the volume fraction, the imaginary component
ε″ of the complex dielectric permittivity decreases by increasing frequency,
f, both for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 and for samples A
h, B
h and C
h (
Figure 5 a) and b)). Also, the values
ε″ corresponding to samples A
h, B
h and C
h (
Figure 5 b)) are smaller than those corresponding to samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 at any frequency
f and the same value of the volume fraction,
φ.
This result shows that the preparation of such samples by mixing a ferrofluid with silicone rubber, in the presence of an external magnetic field, leads to obtaining of composite samples with different dielectric properties, that can be controlled by the magnetic field, H and by the volume fraction, φ.
3.3. DC and AC conductivity
It is known that, for the study of composite materials, an important parameter is the electrical conductivity, σ, which can be determined from the dielectric data of permittivity [
32,
33] with relation:
The conductivity σ, provides information about the transport of electric charge in materials [
33,
34], being useful for different applications. Based on the experimental values ε′′ of the complex dielectric permittivity (
Figure 5 a) and b)), the electrical conductivity, σ, of the composite samples was determined with the equation (6). The frequency dependence of the conductivity, σ, in the frequency range 500 Hz - 2 MHz, is shown in
Figure 6 a) for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 and in
Figure 6 b) for samples A
h, B
h and C
h.
From figure 6, it is observed that the conductivity spectrum,
σ(f), presents two regions: 1) a region in which
σ remains constant with the frequency, corresponding to DC-conductivity (
σdc) and 2) a dispersion region, where
σ depends on frequency, corresponding to AC-conductivity (
σac). In other papers [
9,
35], a similar conductivity frequency dependence was obtained for other composite samples obtained by the combination of the Fe
3O
4 nanoparticles or graphite nanoplatelets with a polymer. This frequency behavior of the electrical conductivity from
Figure 6, of the elastomer composite samples, agrees with the Jonscher universal law [
36]:
The values of static conductivity
σDC remain approximately constant with frequency, up to about 30 kHz, for each volume fraction
φ, both for the composite samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 (
Figure 6 a)) and for the samples A
h, B
h and C
h (
Figure 6 b)), the
σDC obtained values being listed in
Table 1.
From
Table 1, it is observed that by increasing the volume fraction φ of particles, the σ
DC conductivity increases for all composite samples. Also, the values of σ
DC corresponding to samples manufactured in the presence of magnetic field (samples A
h, B
h and C
h) are higher than the σ
DC values of samples A
0, B
0 and C
0, manufactured in the absence of the magnetic field. Therefore, the σ
DC conductivity of composite samples is correlated with the sample manufacturing process. When sample preparation takes place in the presence of the magnetic field, the magnetite particles from ferrofluid align in the direction of the magnetic field, forming parallel chains of particles (see
Figure 1 d), e) and f), which leads to an increase in the conductivity σ
DC, in relation to σ
DC of the samples prepared in the absence of magnetic field when the particles are randomly oriented in the entire volume of the elastomer composite material (see
Figure 1 a), b) and c)).
The component
σAC of the conductivity depends on the frequency, being correlated with the dielectric relaxation processes due to the localized electric charge carriers from the composite samples and is given by the following equation:
where
n is an exponent which is dependent on both frequency and temperature (0 <
n < 1) and
A is a pre-exponential factor [
37].
The logarithmation of equation (8) leads to a linear dependence between
lnσAC and
lnω, which is shown in
Figure 7 a) for samples A
0, B
0 and C
0 and in
Figure 7 b) for samples A
h, B
h and C
h, respectively. Fitting the experimental dependencies,
ln(σAC)(ln(ω)), from
Figure 7 a) and b), with a straight line, we determined the exponent
n and the parameter
A, corresponding to all the values of the volume fraction,
φ. The values obtained are listed in
Table 1. It is observed that the values of exponent
n, corresponding to samples A
h, B
h and C
h, obtained in the presence of a magnetic field
H, are lower than the values
n corresponding to samples A
0, B
0 and C
0, for the same value
φ of the volume fraction.
To investigate the electrical conduction mechanism in an elastomeric composite sample, several theoretical models [
38,
39] can be applied, such a commonly used model being the correlated barrier hopping (CBH) theoretical model [
39]. According to the CBH model, the exponent
n can be written in a first approximation as [
39]:
In Eq. (9),
Wm represents the barrier energy [
39,
40]. Using the relation (9), and the values,
n, we determined the barrier energy of electrical conduction process of each investigated sample. The obtained results for
Wm are shown in
Table 1.
As can be seen from
Table 1, the increase in the volume fraction φ of the particles leads to an increase in the barrier energy
Wm for all composite samples. Also, the
Wm values corresponding to the samples manufactured in the presence of the magnetic field (samples A
h, B
h and C
h) are lower than the
Wm values of the samples A
0, B
0 and C
0, manufactured in the absence of the magnetic field. Therefore, the decrease of the barrier energy
Wm of samples A
h, B
h and C
h, compared to the barrier energy of samples A
0, B
0 and C
0, will lead to an increase in the number of charge carriers that will be able to participate in the electrical conduction in these samples, which determines an increase in their conductivity, as we obtained experimentally (see
Table 1).