Stretchable metal electrodes on dielectric elastomers

Description

Dielectric elastomer actuators require reliable and highly compliant electrodes. We have evaluated the electrical and mechanical resistance of thin gold films on silicone based dielectric elastomers to extended cyclic uni-axial loading, and found that 50nm thick gold films on 1mm thick silicone substrate remain electrically conducting over 100,000 cycles to 20% tensile strain. The film morphology evolves from a random micron size crack pattern into a square-like crack pattern. We discuss potential application of stretchable metal electrodes for their use in dielectric elastomer actuators.

Period	08 Jun 2011
Event title	EuroEAP 2011
Event type	Conference
Location	ItalyShow on map