Understanding the enhanced electrorheological effect of reduced graphene oxide-supported polyaniline dielectric nanoplates by a comparative study with graphene oxide as the support core

Graphene has attracted scientific interest as a substrate or additive for developing high-performance stimuli-responsive materials. Research on graphene-based polymer dielectric composites has shown an enhanced electroresponsive electrorheological (ER) effect. However, the mechanism behind the enhanced electroresponse is still incompletely understood. Here, an investigation was performed into dielectric polarization and the ER effect of reduced graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates by comparing them with pure granular polyaniline and graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates based on dielectric spectroscopy and rheologic analysis. We discovered that both anisotropic morphology and electrical properties have dominant roles in the enhanced ER effect of reduced graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates, whereas only anisotropic morphology has a dominant role in the enhanced ER effect of graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates. The analysis also showed that reduced graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates have a good ER response to both DC and AC electric field actions in the wide shear rate region. This is highly desirable for practical engineering applications. Therefore, the analysis reveals the reason for the enhanced ER effect of reduced graphene oxide-supported polyaniline nanoplates and also may provide a guide for designing high-performance ER materials for practical engineering applications by combining the advantages of conducting a reduced graphene oxide core and ER active shell.