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High Performance Electroactive Polymers and Nano-composites for Artificial Muscles

Materials Research Institute and Electrical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Cheng Huang

Materials Research Institute and Electrical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Rob J. Klein

Materials Research Institute and Electrical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Feng Xia

Materials Research Institute and Electrical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Q. M. Zhang

Materials Research Institute and Electrical Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA, qxz1{at}psu.edu

Z.-Y. Cheng

Materials Research and Education Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA

Electroactive polymers with high dielectric constant (K) can generate a large strain response under an electric field and they are promising candidate materials for artificial muscles. By introducing carefully controlled defects, normal ferroelectric polymer poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] can be converted into a relaxor ferroelectric material with electrostrictive strain up to 7% and room temperature dielectric constant above 50. These defects can be created by either high-energy electron irradiation or copolymerization with a third bulky comonomer chlorofluoroethylene. Furthermore, giant K can be achieved in all-polymer percolative composites with organic semiconductor copper-phthalocyanine or conducting polymer as the filler. The recently developed nano-composites have K up to 1000 and electromechanical strain above 10%.

Key Words: electroactive polymers • poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) • dielectric constant • electromechanical response • nano-composites

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