Eliminating the Misconceptions Regarding the Usage of Commercially Available Silicone Elastomers in Thin Film Actuators

Abstract

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are actively being studied to develop soft transducers including DE actuators (DEAs). Poly(dimethylsiloxane) is a popular elastomer component and known for yielding a relatively low dielectric constant (ε′) for DEAs. Herein, a novel polysiloxane‐based DE, namely, DOWSIL ME 7540 Electroactive Elastomer is reported, offering ε′ = 5.2–5.5 over a broad frequency range that is nearly two times as high as that for commercially popular SYLGARD 184 Silicone Elastomer as a comparative DE. Weibull analysis is useful for statistically evaluating dielectric strength (DS). ME 7540 DE attains DS = 63.8 V μm−1, which is only 16% lower than DS = 75.7 V μm−1 obtained with 184 DE. The material parameters obtained by fitting uniaxial extension results with the Yeoh model are used to simulate an equibiaxial stress–stretch ratio (λib) curve, with i = 1 or 2, and the relationship between voltage and λ1b. Simulation and actuation experiments confirm that ME 7540 DE performs better than 184 DE over one million cycles. With these advantages, ME 7540 DE will help accelerate not only fundamental studies but also developments in real‐life applications in the DEA field.