Stretchable and transparent hydrogels as soft conductors for dielectric elastomer actuators |
| |
| Authors: | Feng Xiang Jeong‐Yun Sun Yong Mei Chen Hong Wang Jinxiong Zhou Zhigang Suo |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Xi'an Jiaotong University, , Xi'an, 710049 China;2. School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Kavli Institute of Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, , Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138;3. Department of Chemistry, School of Science, MOE Key Laboratory for Non‐Equilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Xi'an Jiaotong University, , Xi'an, 710049 China;4. Department of Chemistry, Xi'an Jiaotong University, , Xi'an, 710049 China;5. State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, International Center for Applied Mechanics and School of Aerospace, Xi'an Jiaotong University, , Xi'an, 710049 China |
| |
| Abstract: | A soft ionic conductor can serve as an artificial nerve in an artificial muscle. A polyacrylamide hydrogel is synthesized containing a hygroscopic salt, lithium chloride. Two layers of the hydrogel are used as ionic conductors to sandwich a dielectric elastomer and fabricate a highly stretchable and transparent actuator. When the two layers of the hydrogels are subject to a voltage, the actuator reduces its thickness and expands. An areal strain of 134% is demonstrated. The voltage‐strain curves are calculated by using a model that accounts for the elastic constraint of the hydrogel and the inhomogeneous deformation of the actuator. For actuators fabricated with the hydrogel of various thicknesses and with the dielectric elastomer of various prestretches, excellent agreements are found between experimental data and theoretical predictions. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1055–1060 |
| |
| Keywords: | dielectric elastomer hydrogel ionic conductor stretchable conductor |
|
|
