Electrorheology of miscible blended liquid crystalline polymer: A dielectric property approach

A miscible blended liquid crystalline polymer prepared by Asahi Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. was used to study the effect of temperature on electrorheology. The electrorheological (ER) effect was measured using a rotational viscometer at temperatures between 20 and 60 degrees C. The polymer showed no yield shear stress under an external electric field, and its ER effect increased with decreasing temperature. We explain the electrorheology of the miscible blended liquid crystalline polymer using our ER mechanism, based on Block's model. In our mechanism, for an ER fluid to have an appreciable ER effect, its relaxation frequency must be between 100 and 10(5) Hz and the difference in the dielectric constant must be large below and above the relaxation frequency. The relaxation frequency of the miscible blended liquid crystalline polymer increased with increasing temperature, and the difference in its dielectric constant below and above the relaxation frequency increased with decreasing temperature. These dielectric properties are explained by the Debye theory and account for the electrorheology of the polymer. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.