Nanocomposites

8Electrostrictive Polymer Nanocomposites: Fundamental and Applications

Shenghong YAO and Jinkai YUAN

Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, CNRS – University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France

8.1. Introduction

All dielectric materials have electroactivity, that is, the ability to changing their dimension or shape in response to an applied electric field (Dang et al. 2012). The electroactive polymer (EAP) and its polymer nanocomposites are particularly interesting for applications that range from actuators or sensors to generators, due to their low moduli, high strain capabilities and the ease of processing at low cost and customizable electromechanical coupling properties.

Generally, EAPs have the ability to induce strains that are two orders of magnitude greater than the rigid and fragile electroactive ceramics. They show higher response speed as compared with the shape memory alloys and polymers (Yuan et al. 2019). Because of these features, EAPs can be strongly comparable to biological muscles and have been long named “artificial muscles” (Bar-Cohen 2002). A challenge to the community has even been made: to develop a robotic arm actuated by artificial muscles to win an arm wrestling match against a human opponent.

In addition to actuators, EAPs have also revealed their potential in sensory applications such as haptic sensing, blood pressure and pulse rate monitoring and chemical sensing (Wang et al. 2016). Furthermore, EAPs even act as key active materials in generators. With ever-increasing ...