Electrorheological (ER) fluid is an intelligent material made up of dielectric particles and isolating oil, whose shear strength significantly increases as the dielectric particles draw close to each other in an electric field. The change of the ER fluid is not only consecutive but also controllable. Therefore, this material can be widely applied to various fields such as precision polishing and vibration and noise reduction. Though the giant ER fluid in recent years conquers the defect that the change of traditional ER’s shear strength is rather small, it also has the disadvantage of poor temperature stability and short service life. This paper proposes a nano-conductor dominated ER fluid made by combining dielectric particles inlaid with nano-conductor clusters (metal or carbon etc) with silicon oil, the effect of which is the result of the strong interaction generated by the conductor nanoclusters in the process of inducing dipole moments in the electric field. Due to the stable combination of dielectric particles and conductor nanoclusters, the newly developed ER fluid can withstand the long-lasting friction and temperature changes and has advantages such as high shear strength (>100kPa), small leakage current (<1μA), stability under high temperature (25-175℃) and long service life. This research uses TiO₂ inlaid with nano-carbon as dielectric particles to make ER polishing fluid. Experiments on silicon wafers polished by polishing fluid consisting of ER particles, silicone oil and abrasives were conducted. Results indicate that the surface roughness of silicon wafers decreased from 205nm to 6.4nm after being polished roughly. The roughness then decreased to 0.36nm after further fine polishing, resulting in a high-quality surface.

electrorheological fluid,Shear strength,Electrorheological polishing,roughness