Electrorheological properties of carbon nanotube/ polyelectrolyte composite silica nanoparticles by layer-by-layer self-assembly.

Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MCNTs)/silica (SiO2) composite particles were prepared by layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly method using polyelectrolytes and functionalized MCNTs (fMCNTs). The fMCNTs prepared by chemical oxidation method were incorporated on the outermost layer of polyelectrolyte-coated SiO2 particles. The amount of fMCNTs was varied by LbL self assembly. In the process the number of fMCNT layers on SiO2 particles could be controlled. The fMCNT-coated SiO2 particles were characterized by zeta-potential analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and optical microscopy (OM). In addition, the electrorheological (ER) properties of multilayers containing fMCNTs on silica particles were investigated under controlled electric fields. The ER properties of the composite particles were influenced by the amount of fMCNTs in multilayers.