Stress-induced birefringence in elastomers doped with ferrofluid magnetic particles: Mechanical and optical investigation

Magnetic nanoparticles from magnetic colloidal suspensions were incorporated in the urethane/urea elastomer (PU/PBDO) by adding to the prepolymers solution in toluene diverse amounts of magnetite grains. It is shown that ferrofluid grains can be efficiently incorporated into the elastomer according to this procedure. Mechanical and optical experiments performed show that the elastomer preparation procedure (casting) introduces a structural anisotropy on the optically isotropic sample. This fact is put in evidence by the measurements of the Young's moduli and orientation of the sample's optical axis under stress. The dependence of the phase shift of both the pure and ferrofluid-doped elastomer samples under strain is linear, and the strain-optic coefficient is show to be linear with the ferrofluid concentration.