TY - JOUR A1 - Wache, Remi A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Risse, Sebastian A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Rotary Motion Achieved by New Torsional Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Design JF - IEEE ASME transactions on mechatronics N2 - This paper reports a new way to produce a rotation motion actuated by dielectric elastomer actuators. Two specific electrode designs have been developed and the rotation of the actuator centers has been demonstrated and measured. At low strains, the rotation shows a nearly quadratic dependence with the voltage. This behavior was used to compare the performances between the two proposed designs. Among the tested configurations, a maximal rotation of 10 degrees was achieved. KW - Dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) KW - electroactive polymer KW - rotation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2014.2301633 SN - 1083-4435 SN - 1941-014X VL - 20 IS - 2 SP - 975 EP - 977 PB - Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers CY - Piscataway ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Molecular composites with enhanced energy density for electroactive polymers N2 - Actuators based on soft dielectric elastomers deform due to electric field induced Maxwell's stress, interacting with the mechanical properties of the material. The relatively high operating voltages of such actuators can be reduced by increasing the permittivity of the active material, while maintaining the mechanical properties and high electrical breakdown strength. Approaches relying on the use of highly polarizable molecules or conjugated polymers have so far provided the best results, however it has been difficult to maintain high breakdown strengths. In this work, a new approach for increasing the electrostatic energy density of a soft polymer based on molecular composites is presented, relying on chemically grafting soft gel-state pi-conjugated conducting macromolecules (polyaniline (PANI)) to a flexible elastomer backbone SEBS-g-MA (poly-styrene-co-ethylene-co-butylene-co-styrene-g-maleic anhydride). The approach was found to result in composites of increased permittivity (470% over the elastomer matrix) with hardly any reduction in breakdown strength (from 140 to 120 V mu m(-1)), resulting in a large increase in stored electrostatic energy. This led to an improvement in the measured electromechanical response as well as in the maximum actuation strain. A transition was observed when amounts of PANI exceeded 2 vol%, which was ascribed to the exhaustion of the MA- functionality of the SEBS-g-MA. The transition led to drastic increases in permittivity and conductivity, and a sharp drop in electrical breakdown strength. Although the transition caused further improvement of the electromechanical response, the reduction in electrical breakdown strength caused a limitation of the maximum achievable actuation strain. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/jm/index.asp U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C0jm00519c SN - 0959-9428 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - Rychkov, Dmitry A1 - Ragusch, Huelya A1 - Melzer, Michael A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Increased permittivity nanocomposite dielectrics by controlled interfacial interactions JF - Composites science and technology N2 - The use of nanoparticles in polymer composite dielectrics has promised great improvements, but useful results have been elusive. Here, the importance of the interfacial interactions between the nanoparticles and the polymer matrix are investigated in TiO2 nanocomposites for dielectric materials using surface functionalisation. The interface is observed to dominate the nanocomposite properties and leads to a threefold increase in permittivity at volume fractions as low as 10%. Surface functionalisation of the filler nanoparticles with silanes allows control of this interface, avoiding significant degradation of the other important material properties, particularly electrical breakdown strength, and resulting in a material that is demonstrated successfully as an active material in a dielectric elastomer actuator application with increased work output compared to the pure polymer. Although further permittivity increases are observed when the interface regions have formed a percolation network, the other material properties deteriorate. The observation of percolation behaviour allows the interface thickness to be estimated. KW - Ceramics KW - Nanocomposites KW - Actuator KW - Interface KW - Electrical properties Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2012.01.026 SN - 0266-3538 VL - 72 IS - 6 SP - 731 EP - 736 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kussmaul, Bjoern A1 - Risse, Sebastian A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Wache, Remi A1 - Wegener, Michael A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Krüger, Hartmut A1 - Gerhard, Reimund T1 - Enhancement of dielectric permittivity and electromechanical response in silicone elastomers molecular grafting of organic dipoles to the macromolecular Network JF - Advanced functional materials N2 - A novel method is established for permittivity enhancement of a silicone matrix for dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) by molecular level modifications of the elastomer matrix. A push-pull dipole is synthesized to be compatible with the silicone crosslinking chemistry, allowing for direct grafting to the crosslinker molecules in a one-step film formation process. This method prevents agglomeration and yields elastomer films that are homogeneous down to the molecular level. The dipole-to-silicone network grafting reaction is studied by FTIR. The chemical, thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of films with dipole contents ranging from 0 wt% to 13.4 wt% were thoroughly characterized. The grafting of dipoles modifies the relative permittivity and the stiffness, resulting in the actuation strain at a given electrical field being improved by a factor of six. KW - dipole grafting KW - silicone based dielectric elastomer actuators KW - permittivity enhancement Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201100884 SN - 1616-301X VL - 21 IS - 23 SP - 4589 EP - 4594 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - Risse, Sebastian A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Elastic block copolymer nanocomposites with controlled interfacial interactions for artificial muscles with direct voltage control JF - Soft matter N2 - Soft, physically crosslinking, block copolymer elastomers were filled with surface-treated nanoparticles, in order to evaluate the possibility for improvement of their properties when used as soft dielectric actuators. The nanoparticles led to improvements in dielectric properties, however they also reinforced the elastomer matrix. Comparing dielectric spectra of composites with untreated and surface-treated particles showed a measurable influence of the surface on the dielectric loss behaviour for high filler amounts, strongly indicating an improved host-guest interaction for the surface-treated particles. Breakdown strength was measured using a test bench and was found to be in good agreement with the results from the actuation measurements. Actuation responses predicted by a model for prestrained actuators agreed well with measurements up to a filler amount of 20%(vol). Strong improvements in actuation behaviour were observed, with an optimum near 15%(vol) nanoparticles, corresponding to a reduction in electrical field of 27% for identical actuation strains. The use of physically crosslinking elastomer ensured the mechanical properties of the matrix elastomer were unchanged by nanoparticles effecting the crosslinking reaction, contrary to similar experiments performed with chemically crosslinking elastomers. This allows for a firm conclusion about the positive effects of surface-treated nanoparticles on actuation behavior. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c0sm00715c SN - 1744-683X SN - 1744-6848 VL - 7 IS - 1 SP - 194 EP - 202 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Risse, Sebastian A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Sokolov, Sergey A1 - Krähnert, Ralph T1 - Broad-spectrum enhancement of polymer composite dielectric constant at ultra low volume fractions of silica-supported copper nanoparticles JF - ACS nano N2 - A new strategy for the synthesis of high permittivity polymer composites is demonstrated based on well-defined spatial distribution of ultralow amounts of conductive nanoparticles. The spatial distribution Was realized by immobilizing Cu nanoparticles within the pore system of Alia microspheres, preventing direct contact between individual Cu particles. Both Cu-loaded and unloaded silica microspheres were-then used as fillers in polymer composites prepared with thermoplastic SEBS rubber is the matrix. With a metallic Cu content of about 0.26 vol % In the compoilte, a relative increase of 94% In real permittivity was obtained. No Cu-induced relaxations were observed in the dielectric spectrum within the studied frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 1 MHz. When related to the amount of conductive nanoparticles, the obtained composites achieve the highest broad spectrum enhancement of permittivity ever reported for a polymer based composite. KW - nanocomposite KW - broad-spectrum permittivity enhancement KW - metal nanoparticles KW - uniform spatial arrangement Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/nn103097q SN - 1936-0851 VL - 5 IS - 3 SP - 1623 EP - 1629 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jordan, Grace A1 - McCarthy, Denis N. A1 - Schlepple, N. A1 - Krissler, Jan A1 - Schroeder, H. A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Actuated micro-optical submount using a dielectric elastomer actuator JF - IEEE ASME transactions on mechatronics N2 - Analysis of the operating characteristics of a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) submount for the high-precision positioning of optical components in one dimension is presented. Precise alignment of a single-mode fiber is demonstrated and variation of the sensitivity of the submount motion by changing the bias voltage is confirmed. A comparison of the performance of the DEA submount with a piezoelectric alignment stage is made, which demonstrates that DEAs could present a very attractive, low-cost alternative to currently used manual technologies in overcoming the hurdle of expensive packaging of single-mode optical components. KW - Actuators KW - manufacturing automation KW - optical interconnections KW - packaging KW - position control Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2010.2089991 SN - 1083-4435 VL - 16 IS - 1 SP - 98 EP - 102 PB - Inst. of Electr. and Electronics Engineers CY - Piscataway ER -