Advances in electrorheological fluids based on inorganic dielectric materials

Electrorheological (ER) fluid is a smart suspension, whose structures and rheological properties can be tuned by an external electric field. This simple transformation from electric to mechanical force makes ER fluid potential use in active control of conventional and intelligent devices. Due to insufficient performance of ER materials, researches on high active ER materials for practical technical applications have been continuously carried out. In recent years, there has been considerable progress made in developing more efficient ER materials ranged from organics to inorganic to composite. In this paper, we briefly introduce ER mechanisms and review on the recent progress in inorganics related ER materials. Two systems including pure inorganic phase and nanocomposite are specially discussed.