TY  - JOUR
A1  - Farhan, Muhammad
A1  - Chaudhary, Deeptangshu
A1  - Nöchel, Ulrich
A1  - Behl, Marc
A1  - Kratz, Karl
A1  - Lendlein, Andreas
T1  - Electrical actuation of coated and composite fibers based on poly[ethylene-co-(vinyl acetate)]
JF  - Macromolecular materials and engineering
N2  - Robots are typically controlled by electrical signals. Resistive heating is an option to electrically trigger actuation in thermosensitive polymer systems. In this study electrically triggerable poly[ethylene-co-(vinyl acetate)] (PEVA)-based fiber actuators are realized as composite fibers as well as polymer fibers with conductive coatings. In the coated fibers, the core consists of crosslinked PEVA (cPEVA), while the conductive coating shell is achieved via a dip coating procedure with a coating thickness between 10 and 140 mu m. The conductivity of coated fibers sigma = 300-550 S m(-1) is much higher than that of the composite fibers sigma = 5.5 S m(-1). A voltage (U) of 110 V is required to heat 30 cm of coated fiber to a targeted temperature of approximate to 65 degrees C for switching in less than a minute. Cyclic electrical actuation investigations reveal epsilon '(rev) = 5 +/- 1% reversible change in length for coated fibers. The fabrication of such electro-conductive polymeric actuators is suitable for upscaling so that their application potential as artificial muscles can be explored in future studies.
KW  - artificial muscles
KW  - fiber actuators
KW  - resistive heating
KW  - shape‐memory polymer actuators
KW  - soft robotics
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/mame.202000579
SN  - 1438-7492
SN  - 1439-2054
VL  - 306
IS  - 2
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  -