Transparent Tunable Acoustic Absorber Membrane Using Inkjet-Printed PEDOT:PSS Thin-Film Compliant Electrodes

Window glasses can block noise from outdoor, but they reverberate sound within a large indoor space. Microperforated glass absorbers have been developed to absorb sound over a fixed but narrow bandwidth. To tune the frequency spectrum of acoustic absorption, we developed a transparent tunable acoustic absorber based on microperforated dielectric elastomer actuator (MPDEA) and transparent compliant electrodes. Such transparent compliant electrodes were inkjet printed from Triton X-plasticized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) ink, which shows improved wettability on the acrylate dielectric elastomer substrate. These transparent polymeric electrodes are softer with uptake of moisture while being self-clearable and durable. A single layer of MPDEA using two inkjet-printed electrodes is 78.64% clear, but the clarity of a two-layer MPDEA decreases to 61.8%. Among the two designs, the two-layer MPDEA exhibits a broader acoustic absorption bandwidth of 444 Hz for absorbing more than 80% of the sound energy. Inactivated resonant frequency of this MPDEA is 1170 Hz, whereas the 6 kV activation can reduce the resonant frequency for 15.2% by causing 9% hole-diameter contraction. This transparent tunable acoustic absorber can be fitted to window glass; its acoustic performance is better than that of translucent curtains.