How to tune rubber elasticity

Anne Ladegaard Larsen; Peter Sommer-Larsen; Ole Hassager

doi:10.1117/12.538057

27 July 2004 How to tune rubber elasticity

Anne Ladegaard Larsen, Peter Sommer-Larsen, Ole Hassager

Proceedings Volume 5385, Smart Structures and Materials 2004: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD); (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.538057
Event: Smart Structures and Materials, 2004, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

When using polymeric networks to EAP material, certain requirements need to be fulfilled or at least partly fulfilled. The networks need to be strong since the driving voltage goes as the thickness of the film to the second power, but on the other hand the networks need to be soft and flexible in order to provide sufficiently motion. Several network parameters can be altered in order to alter the network properties but it turns out that the most obvious parameter - the chain length of the network reactants - has moderately influence at molecular lengths above the entanglement length only. The inter-chains entanglements dominate the properties rather than the actual crosslinks. Since chain lengths below the entanglement length result in hard networks, the chain length alone does not constitute a tunable parameter. Therefore, it is obvious to focus on controlling the entanglements. One way to do this is to make the network in solution and afterwards remove the solvent. This way the entanglement contribution is lowered because network chains will be surrounded by solvent molecules and therefore the number of trapped entanglements between network chains will be lowered. The chain length can then be used as an easily tunable parameter.

Citation Download Citation

Anne Ladegaard Larsen, Peter Sommer-Larsen, and Ole Hassager "How to tune rubber elasticity", Proc. SPIE 5385, Smart Structures and Materials 2004: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD), (27 July 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.538057

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