Electrically Active Non-ionic Artificial Muscle

The author has been studying the electrical actuation of non-ionic dielectric polymeric materials, ranging from highly swollen polymer gels to non-solvent containing elastomers. In this presentation, the present situation of the kind of ‘artificial muscles,’ is summarized, and an attempt is made to define the future prospects of the artificial muscle. Dielectric polymer solutions show characteristic flow behavior in the electrical field that is different from that of the intact solvent itself. Polymeric gels that contain a large amount of solvent can be deformed in two processes, one is by Maxwell force and the other by ‘charge injected solvent drag’. Plasticizer plays a slightly different role in the electrical deformation. In the case of a plasticized polymer, instead of the solvent drag, creep deformation occurs in which plasticized polymer gel body deforms with charge injection. It looks like an amoeba-like ‘pseudoplasmic flow,’ and is known as ‘electrotaxis’. The strain was found to reach over 400%. In the case of a non-solvent system, a dielectric elastomer is the possible candidate for actuator. In this case, it is proposed that the electrically induced deformation is asymmetric on both electrodes and usually deforms with bending. Although the strain is much smaller than that found in gels and plasticized materials, it is adequate for the study of space charge distribution in materials. The phenomena observed in elastomers are consistent in gels or plasticized materials.