The Actuator Mechanism and Piezoelectric Effect on Fullerenol doped polyurethane elastomer (PUE)

Abstract

It has already reported that the electrostriction effect of polyurethane elastomer (PIJE) films can apply to moving devices such as an actuator. The actuators are unimorph type which are deposited the electrode of different thickness on the surface of PUE film. Because these actuators work at high voltage more than 1 KV, we controlled the molecular structure of films by doping C 60 derivatives (fullerenol) into PUE so that the actuators could operate under a low voltage. The bends of fullerenol doped actuators were lager than non-doped actuators, and the working voltage also was small. The bends of actuators strongly depended on the concentration and the number of hydroxyl groups of fullerenol. It was cleared that the bend of actuators are affected by fullerenol. Furthermore, in this study, since the fullerenol doped PUE films show the electrostriction effect, we measured the induced voltage which appear on the surface of film by pressing and stretching. As a result, these films showed the phenomena like a piezoelectric effect, and also fullerenol cleared to play important role on the induced voltage.