1 research outputs found
Giant Electrostriction of Soft Nanocomposites Based on Liquid Crystalline Graphene
High electromechanical
coupling is critical to perform effective
conversion between mechanical and electrical energy for various applications
of electrostrictive polymers. Herein, a giant electrostriction effect
is reported in liquid crystalline graphene-doped dielectric elastomers.
The materials are formulated by a phase-transfer method which allows
the solubilization of graphenic monolayers in nonpolar solvents. Dielectric
spectroscopy is combined with tensile test devices to measure the
true electrostriction coefficients with differentiating the Maxwell
stress effect. Because of their liquid crystal structure, the resultant
composites show an ultralarge electrostriction coefficient (ā¼10<sup>ā14</sup> m<sup>2</sup>/V<sup>2</sup> at 0.1 Hz) coupled with
good reproducibility during cycles at high deformation rates. This
work offers a promising pathway to design high-performance electrostrictive
polymer composites as well as to provide insights into mechanisms
of true electrostriction in electrically heterogeneous systems. The
use of obtained materials as a supersensitive capacitive sensor is
demonstrated