Magnetic Elastomers with Smart Variable Elasticity Mimetic to Sea Cucumber

Abstract

A magnetic-responsive elastomer consisting of magnetic elastomer and zinc oxide with a tetrapod shape and long arms was fabricated mimetic to the tissue of sea cucumber in which collagen fibrils are dispersed. Only the part of magnetic elastomer is active to magnetic fields, zinc oxide plays a role of reinforcement for the chain structure of magnetic particles formed under magnetic fields. The magnetic response of storage modulus for bimodal magnetic elastomers was measured when the magnetic particle was substituted to a nonmagnetic one, while keeping the total volume fraction of both particles. The change in storage modulus obeyed basically a mixing rule. However, a remarkable enhancement was observed at around the substitution ratio of 0.20. In addition, the bimodal magnetic elastomers with tetrapods exhibited apparent change in storage modulus even at regions with a high substitution ratio where monomodal magnetic elastomers consist of only magnetic particles with less response to the magnetic field. This strongly indicates that discontinuous chains of small amounts of magnetic particles were bridged by the nonmagnetic tetrapods. On the contrary, the change in storage modulus for bimodal magnetic elastomers with zinc oxide with irregular shape showed a mixing rule with a substitution ratio below 0.30. However, it decreased significantly at the substitution ratio above it. The structures of bimodal magnetic elastomers with tetrapods and the tissue of sea cucumber with collagen fibrils are discussed.