Study of superhydrophobic surface in self-cleaning of magnetorheological fluid

Magnetorheological (MR) fluid is a well-established controllable smart material for fabricating electromagnetic functional components and for magnetorheological finishing. However, the water and labor consumption in cleaning work could seriously reduce its efficiency. Superhydrophobic surface has been widely used in self-cleaning applications owing to its excellent anti-wetting property. In this work, superhydrophobic surface was adopted to prevent the microparticles from adhering to the solid surface, in order to realize the easy washing of MR fluid. The superhydrophobic surface showed water-repellency when MR fluid contact angles exceeded 150°. The bouncing phenomena of the MR fluid were observed even though the carbonyl iron powders concentration was up to 70 vol%. Additionally, the mechanical durability and robustness of prepared surface were satisfactory during the sandpaper polishing process and MR fluid wear tests. Moreover, excellent self-cleaning properties can be obtained by changing micropowders scale from millimeter to nanometer and MR fluid—a complex suspension system. The superhydrophobic surface is expected to be an adaptable and efficient method for reducing human labor and saving water during the cleaning of MR fluid, and may have potential of applications in the precise analysis of complex suspensions.