Hybrid Carbonyl Iron/Iron Oxide Microfiber Textile Membranes with Magnetically Tunable Capacitance Under Compressive Loading

Flexible textile membranes were prepared by impregnating woven cotton fabrics with silicone oil (SO)-based suspensions containing carbonyl iron (CI) microparticles and iron oxide microfibers (μFe). The microfibers were obtained by a microwave-assisted microplasma process and then co-dispersed with CI in SO. In the final membranes, the CI content was kept constant at ΦCI=10 vol.%, whereas the microfiber fraction was 0, 10 and 20 vol.%. The resulting membranes were used as dielectric layers in planar capacitors and examined at 1 kHz under a static magnetic field of up to 150 mT and compressive pressure up to 10 kPa. In every composition, the capacitance rose with increasing magnetic flux density, but both the zero-field capacitance and the field-induced capacitance change became smaller as the microfiber content increased. A monotonic, nearly linear increase in capacitance was also observed under compression over the tested pressure range. Within a simplified parallel-plate and magnetic-stress analysis, the capacitance data were further used to estimate the apparent relative permittivity, together with capacitance-derived indicators of deformation and stiffness. These estimates suggest field-induced stiffening of the membranes and a higher apparent low-field stiffness at higher microfiber loading. The obtained hybrid CI/μFe-based textile membranes can serve as composition-tunable dielectric layers whose electrical response is influenced by both magnetic field and compressive loading, making them relevant for flexible capacitor-based elements.