Malas, A, Saleh, E orcid.org/0000-0001-9930-5055, Giménez‐López, MDC et al. (7 more authors) (2022) Reactive Jetting of High Viscosity Nanocomposites for Dielectric Elastomer Actuation. Advanced Materials Technologies, 7 (6). 2101111. ISSN 2365-709X
Abstract
The layer-by-layer nature of additive manufacturing is well matched to the layer construction of stacked dielectric actuators, with inkjet printing offering a unique opportunity due to its droplet-on-demand capability, suitable for multi-material processing at high resolution. This paper demonstrates the use of high viscosity, multi-material jetting to deposit two-part reactive inks with functionalized nanofillers to digitally manufacture dielectric elastomers for soft robots with high precision, and shape manipulation. Graphene-based fillers, including graphene oxide (GO) and thermally reduced graphene oxides (TRGOs), have been incorporated into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix at low loading (below the percolation threshold). Consequently, the dielectric constant of the elastomer dramatically increases (by 97%) compared to neat PDMS, yielding a more than 20-fold increase in the electric-field induced electromechanical contraction (from 0.3 to 6.7%). This study shows that the oxygen-functionalities present in GO and TRGOs, which possess a moderate conductivity, improve the dispersion of those fillers in polymer matrices, thus significantly improving the dielectric constant of the polymer composites. Inkjet printing of high-performance, soft electroactive composites enables high-speed, reliable fabrication of monolithic artificial muscles (leading to stronger, cheaper, and more capable soft robotic devices) and provides a vital stepping stone towards fully additively manufactured soft robots.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Materials Technologies published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
Keywords: | 3D-printing; additive manufacturing; dielectric constant; inkjet printing; soft robotics |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Future Manufacturing Processes (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Mar 2022 11:10 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/admt.202101111 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:184395 |