Abstract
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically-actuated strain can build light-weight and flexible non-magnetic motors. However, dielectric elastomers commonly used in the field of soft actuation suffer from high stiffness, low strength, and high driving field, severely limiting the DEA’s actuating performance. Here we design a new polyacrylate dielectric elastomer with optimized crosslinking network by rationally employing the difunctional macromolecular crosslinking agent. The proposed elastomer simultaneously possesses desirable modulus (~0.073 MPa), high toughness (elongation ~2400%), low mechanical loss (tan δm = 0.21@1 Hz, 20 °C), and satisfactory dielectric properties ({varepsilon }_{{{{{{rm{r}}}}}}} = 5.75, tan δe = 0.0019 @1 kHz), and accordingly, large actuation strain (118% @ 70 MV m−1), high energy density (0.24 MJ m−3 @ 70 MV m−1), and rapid response (bandwidth above 100 Hz). Compared with VHBTM 4910, the non-magnetic motor made of our elastomer presents 15 times higher rotation speed. These findings offer a strategy to fabricate high-performance dielectric elastomers for soft actuators.
Highlights
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically-actuated strain can build lightweight and flexible non-magnetic motors
Soft actuators made of various types of electroactive polymers (EAPs) with electric-field-induced deformation have received considerable attention in the aforementioned fields[8,9,10,11,12,13]
The crosslinked network structure of elastomer has a significant influence on the intrinsic mechanical and electrical properties of dielectric elastomer, affecting its actuation behavior achieved by the conversion of electrical to mechanical energy
Summary
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically-actuated strain can build lightweight and flexible non-magnetic motors. The analysis of the element and molecular weight distribution of CN9021NS and free chains extracted from BAC2 sample after the swelling experiment indicates that the dissociative component is mainly composed of unreacted CN9021NS and uncrosslinked poly(n-butyl acrylate) chains (Fig. 2c, d).
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