journal article·2022-03-07

Intrinsically Anisotropic Dielectric Elastomer Fiber Actuators

Jin He, Zheqi Chen, Youhua Xiao, Xunuo Cao, Jie Mao, Junjie Zhao, Xiang Gao, Tiefeng Li, Yingwu Luo

ACS Materials Letters· Volume 4· Issue 3
Publisher page

Abstract

Biological muscles are composed of aligned actuatable fiber units to generate directional linear output, inspiring the design of microstructures in artificial muscles. However, synthetic soft elastomers generally possess isotropic mechanical properties; therefore, a promising artificial muscle (dielectric elastomer actuator) generally outputs nondirectional force or deformation. In this work, we report a muscle-mimetic anisotropic dielectric elastomer fiber with directional output driven by electric field. The millimeter-in-diameter fibers are fabricated by rolling elastomeric ultrathin films of triblock copolymer that are pretreated to generate aligned nanostructures and network strands. We theoretically and experimentally reveal that a moderate orthogonal modulus ratio of radial to axial directions (2.8) leads to highly directional actuation, enhancing linear axial strain by 100%. Assembling the anisotropic fine fibers into bundles is able to scale up force output and enables variable motion modes such as extension, bend, and rotation.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · Dielectric materials and actuators · Advanced Materials and Mechanics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China

Key Laboratory of Soft Machines and Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Center for X-Mechanics, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Utilization of Coal and Green Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China

Funding

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Zhejiang Province

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