Doubling the magnetorheological effect of magnetic elastomers

Abstract

One of the most important properties of soft functionalized magnetic composite materials in view of their technological potential is given by the magnetorheological effect. It describes the change in rheological properties such as the shear modulus by application of external magnetic fields. We demonstrate how computational material design can support in approximately doubling the magnitude of this important phenomenon for magnetic elastomers. Key is to work with two perpendicular magnetic field directions. We expect future practical relevance of our concept.