Improved Materials for Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Dielectric elastomers are an emerging class of electroactive polymers for electromechanical transduction. A broad application of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) is limited by the high voltage necessary to drive such devices. The development of novel elastomers offering better intrinsic electromechanical properties is one way to solve the problem. Therefore we prepared composites from thermoplastic or thermoset silicone elastomers and organic fillers as phthalocyanines or doped polyaniline (PANI). We studied the mechanical properties of silicones, synthesized, modified and characterized phthalocyanines and doped PANI. The influence of humidity onto the dielectric properties of CuPc(COOH)₈ and ZnPc(COOH)₈ was analyzed in detail. First measurements of silicone/PANI blends results in a hundredfold increase for the dielectric constant and an electromechanically strain of 8.5%.