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Authors Poikelispää, M. ; Shakun, A. ; Das, A. ; Vuorinen, J.
Title Improvement of actuation performance of dielectric elastomers by barium titanate and carbon black fillers
Date 10.11.2016
Number 51262
Abstract Dielectric elastomers are promising materials for actuators resembling human muscle. Among elastomers, acrylic rubbers (ACM) have shown good actuation performance but its use is limited by the high operating voltages required. The present work demonstrates that simultaneous incorporation of nanostructured carbon black and dielectric fillers offers an increase in a dielectric permittivity and a suitable modulus of the elastomers matrix, enabling an improved electro-mechanical actuation performance at low voltages. By the use of reinforcing carbon black and barium titanate in an acrylic elastomer matrix a sixfold increase in the dielectric permittivity was realized. A fine tuning of the actuation stress and, consequently, actuation strain can be done by a judicial selection of the different filler concentrations in the soft rubber matrix. Finally, a synergistic effect of the fillers was observed in the improved actuation performance of the developed materials. This work may pave the way to design dielectric elastomers for actuator fabrication. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44116.
Publisher Journal of Applied Polymer Science
Wikidata
Citation Journal of Applied Polymer Science 133 (2016) Art.No. 44116
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/app.44116
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