Flexible Actuator Based on Dielectric Elastomer and Conductive PAM Hydrogel Electrodes

Abstract

In recent years, dielectric elastomers have been widely used as electronic functional materials in the field of flexible electronic devices, such as flexible actuators, flexible sensors, and flexible energy storage devices. This paper designed and constructed four types of centimeter level flexible actuators with different dielectric elastomer layer thicknesses based on Ecoflex dielectric elastomer material and conductive polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel material, and conducted high-voltage excitation response experiments on them. When the thickness of the dielectric elastomer layer was 0.5 mm, the flexible actuator achieved the maximum area strain of 27% and 26.5% under the action of the triangular wave voltage signal (max 10 kV) and step voltage signal (10 kV), respectively. The research content of this paper provides an effective approach and technical solution for the design and construction of flexible actuation components, and promotes the development of flexible drive technology.