Crack-Resistant Dielectric Elastomer via Supramolecular Polymerzation for Durable Soft Robots
발표자
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초록
내용
Durability of soft robot materials is a crucial point for their long lifetime. Because they can be damaged by external environments or may develop cracks under repeated operation. Here, we present a novel strategy for crack-resistant elastomer through the self-assembly of polymers. By introducing hydrogen bonding motifs, highly entangled nanodomains are formed through supramolecular polymerization. These nanodomains are attached to the matrix via covalent bonds, allowing the stress within the domains to deconcentrate, thereby resisting crack propagation. The resultant polymer network exhibits a high fracture toughness (> 4500 J m-2) and fatigue threshold (> 240 J m-2). Furthermore, it demonstrates a high dielectric permittivity (> 7@1kHz) and low dielectric loss (< 0.02), making it suitable for use as a dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). Even when notched, the DEA shows stable actuation without both electrical breakdown and mechanical failure under repeated operation.