Electrorheological fluid is a kind of complex fluids, a mixture of dielectric particles and insulating liquids, it is novel smart materials, which can make reversible phase transition like liquid – solid under the electric field.

From 1941 to 2002, researchers' main interests were in traditional electrorhelogical fluid material; the type of material can not be used in engineering application due to its low yield strength (<10kPa). In 2003, when giant ERF was invented, it made materials with yield strength of 100 kPa possible to get.

In 2007, Dr Garjie Xu from the Division of Functional Materials and Nano-Devices, NIMTE dedicated to the research in electrorheological fluid with Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS. Recently they have made a great achievement – successfully prepared electrorheological fluid material with yield strength of 400 kPa, and made good progress in large- scale preparation technology of the material. Currently they are focusing on the research of the application of the materials