CUR - The Council on Undergraduate Research

Characterizing Novel Chained-Particle Magnetic Polymers for Soft Robotics

Stratton Bacogeorge, Benjamin Evans, Department of Physics, Elon University, 50 Campus Drive, Elon, NC 27244

Soft robotics comprises a new class of robotic components designed with flexible and adaptable materials to emulate human-like motions. Magnetic polymers are an appealing medium due to their soft, gel-like nature combined with their responsiveness to magnetic fields. In our lab, we have created novel magnetic polymers containing ordered chains of magnetic particles that are more responsive than regular unchained-particle materials. Chaining the particles boosts their magnetic anisotropy, which increases magnetic torques applied to a sample. Congruent with this experimental work, we are developing a theoretical model that relates magnetic torque to material properties. To characterize the magnetic properties and behavior of these materials, we have built an automated vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and a torque magnetometer. The VSM provides magnetic characterization that serves as an input to our theoretical model and predicts the torques in our materials; in turn, the predicted torques are correlated with direct experimental measurements on the torque magnetometer. This results in a well informed and strongly predictive theoretical model which describes the behavior of chained-particle magnetic polymer materials. Understanding chained-particle magnetic materials, in this way, will allow physicists and engineers to optimize current magnetic materials and develop new formulations for an abundance of applications.

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