Preparation and Enhanced Electrorheological Properties of Ce-Doped Porous Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

In this study, metallic–organic frameworks (MOFs) were used as a precursor for different proportions of rare-earth ion doping in the preparation process of the precursor system. The mesoporous nanoparticle (anatase-type) titanium oxide with certain morphology was prepared by calcining under air atmosphere at 500 °C. The mesoporous structure and special morphology of the rare-earth ion-doped MOF structure are observed. The as-obtained titanium oxide nanoparticle has good surface area and uniform pore distribution, and its leakage current is reduced. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) measurements, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize their microscopic morphology, composition, functional groups, porosity, and so on. Moreover, the samples after calcination were evenly dispersed in silicone oil as electrorheological materials and the electrorheological properties were tested under the mode of controlling the shear rate. It was found that the electrorheological efficiency of rare-earth ion-doped titanium oxide was better than that of pure TiO2 obtained by calcining an MOF precursor. Through the study of its dielectric properties, it is found that good electrorheological (ER) performance is closely related to good dielectric properties.