Preparation and electrorheological performance of β-cyclodextrin inclusion compound doped with carbon fiber

The β-cyclodextrin inclusion compound and the inclusion compound doped with carbon fiber, were synthesized by a very simple grinding method. The nontoxic and facile β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was selected as the substrate of the material, p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTA) and carbon fiber also were chosen as starting materials. The formation of the inclusion compound composed of the host (β-CD) and the guest (PTA) was determined by IR and XRD analysis. The investigations on the electrorheological (ER) properties of the particle materials have shown that PTA as the guest can improve the ER performance of β-CD (host) due to forming the inclusion compound, and the ER activity of the inclusion compound doped with carbon fiber is much higher than that of the inclusion compound. In addition, the suspension of the material doped with carbon fiber has higher anti-sedimentation stability than those of β-CD and its inclusion compound.