TY - JOUR A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Paajanen, Mika A1 - Bauer, Siegfried T1 - Self-organized minimum-energy structures for dielectric elastomer actuators Y1 - 2006 UR - http://www.springerlink.com/content/100501 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-006-3680-3 SN - 0947-8396 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Wirges, Werner A1 - Paajanen, Mika A1 - Bauer, Siegfried T1 - Energy minimization for self-organized structure formation and actuation N2 - An approach for creating complex structures with embedded actuation in planar manufacturing steps is presented. Self-organization and energy minimization are central to this approach, illustrated with a model based on minimization of the hyperelastic free energy strain function of a stretched elastomer and the bending elastic energy of a plastic frame. A tulip-shaped gripper structure illustrates the technological potential of the approach. Advantages are simplicity of manufacture, complexity of final structures, and the ease with which any electroactive material can be exploited as means of actuation. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics. Y1 - 2007 UR - http://apl.aip.org/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2695785 SN - 0003-6951 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mc Carthy, Denis N. A1 - Risse, Stefan A1 - Katekomol, Phisan A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - The effect of dispersion on the increased relative permittivity of TiO2/SEBS composites N2 - Polymer composites are currently suggested for use as improved dielectric materials in many applications. Here, the effect of particle size and dispersion on the electrical properties of composites of rutile TiO2 and poly(styrene- ethylene-butadiene-styrene) (SEBS) are investigated. Both 15 and 300 nm particles are mixed with SEBS, with amounts of sorbitan monopalmitate surfactant from 0 to 3.3 vol%, and their dielectric and mechanical properties are measured. Composites with the 300 nm TiO2 particles result in increases of 170% in relative permittivity over the pure polymer, far above those predicted by standard theories, such as Bruggeman (140%) and Yamada (114%), and improving dispersion with surfactant has little effect. The composites with 15 nm particles showed surprisingly large relative permittivity increases (350%), but improving the dispersion by the addition of any surfactant causes the relative permittivity to decrease to 240% of the pure polymer value. We suggest that the increase is due to the formation of a highly conductive layer in the polymer around the TiO2 particles. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/42/14/145406 SN - 0022-3727 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - Mc Carthy, Denis N. A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Dielectric properties and electric breakdown strength of a subpercolative composite of carbon black in thermoplastic copolymer N2 - We investigate the dielectric properties and electric breakdown strength of subpercolative composites of conductive carbon black particles in a rubber insulating matrix. A significant increase in the permittivity in the vicinity of the insulator to conductor transition was observed, with relatively low increases in dielectric loss; however, a rapid decrease in electric breakdown strength was inevitable. A steplike feature was ascribed to agglomeration effects. The low ultimate values of the electric field strength of such composites appear to prohibit practical use. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://apl.aip.org/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3154553 SN - 0003-6951 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Mc Carthy, Denis N. A1 - Krissler, Jan A1 - Lang, Günter A1 - Jordan, Grace T1 - Electroelastic optical fiber positioning with submicrometer accuracy : model and experiment N2 - We present accurate electromechanical measurements on a balanced push-pull dielectric elastomer actuator, demonstrating submicrometer accurate position control. An analytical model based on a simplified pure-shear dielectric elastomer film with prestretch is found to capture the voltage-displacement behavior, with reduced output due to the boundary conditions. Two complementary experiments show that actuation coefficients of 0.5-1 nm/V-2 are obtainable with the demonstrated device, enabling motion control with submicrometer accuracy in a voltage range below 200 V. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://apl.aip.org/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3134002 SN - 0003-6951 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 - Zhu, Jian A1 - Stoyanov, Hristiyan A1 - Kofod, Guggi A1 - Suo, Zhigang T1 - Large deformation and electromechanical instability of a dielectric elastomer tube actuator N2 - This paper theoretically analyzes a dielectric elastomer tube actuator (DETA). Subject to a voltage difference between the inner and outer surfaces, the actuator reduces in thickness and expands in length, so that the same voltage will induce an even higher electric field. This positive feedback may cause the actuator to thin down drastically, resulting in electrical breakdown. We obtain an analytical solution of the actuator undergoing finite deformation when the elastomer obeys the neo-Hookean model. The critical strain of actuation is calculated in terms of various parameters of design. We also discuss the effect of the strain-stiffening on electromechanical behavior of DETAs by using the model of freely joined links. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3490186] Y1 - 2010 UR - http://jap.aip.org/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3490186 SN - 0021-8979 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - Döring, Sebastian A1 - Stumpe, Joachim A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Voltage-controlled compression for period tuning of optical surface relief gratings JF - OPTICS LETTERS N2 - This Letter reports on new methods and a consistent model for voltage tunable optical transmission gratings. Elastomeric gratings were molded from holographically written surface relief gratings in an azobenzene sol-gel material. These were placed on top of a transparent electroactive elastomeric substrate. Two different electro-active substrate elastomers were employed, with a large range of prestretches. A novel finite-deformation theory was found to match the device response excellently, without fitting parameters. The results clearly show that the grating underwent pure-shear deformation, and more surprisingly, that the mechanical properties of the electro-active substrate did not affect device actuation. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America Y1 - 2011 SN - 0146-9592 VL - 36 IS - 8 SP - 1389 EP - 1391 PB - OPTICAL SOC AMER CY - WASHINGTON 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 - Döring, Sebastian A1 - Kollosche, Matthias A1 - Rabe, Torsten A1 - Stumpe, Joachim A1 - Kofod, Guggi T1 - Electrically tunable polymer DFB laser JF - Advanced materials Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201102465 SN - 0935-9648 VL - 23 IS - 37 SP - 4265 EP - 4269 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -