In patients with de novo atherosclerotic lesions of the CFA, the perioperative morbidity and mortality rate was significantly lower among patients who underwent endovascular therapy by stenting compared with surgery, whereas clinical, morphological, and hemodynamic outcomes were comparable at mid-term. (Traitement des Lésions Athéromateuses de l'Artère Fémorale Commune par Technique Endovasculaire Versus Chirurgie Ouverte [Endovascular Versus Open Repair of the Common Femoral Artery] [TECCO]; NCT01353651).

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This work aims at providing a complete analysis of the effect of plasticizers on the electrostrictive terpolymer performance. To achieve this, several plasticizing agents such as 2-ethylhexyl phtalate (DEHP), diisononyl phtalate (DINP), and palamoll 652 have been incorporated in the polymer matrix. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed novel materials exhibited excellent electromechanical enhancement in terms of transverse strain and mechanical energy density under a moderate electric field, which is definitively critical in recent microscale actuation. Another objective of this article was to explore material characteristics as a function of the DINP content, and it was found that the plasticizer weigh fraction was the key parameter determining performance of the modified fluorinate terpolymer blends. Accordingly, it was revealed that high performance flexible actuators can be achieved merely by employing a simple and cheap plasticizer, thus making it possible to overcome the current technological barrier of conventional electroactive polymers that suffer from the high applied electric field usually required to reach sufficient strain.

The overall performance of an electrostrictive polymer is rated by characteristic numbers, such as its transverse strain, blocking force, and energy density, which are clearly limited by several parameters. Besides the geometrical impact, intrinsic material parameters, such as the permittivity coefficient as well as the Young’s modulus and the breakdown electric field, have strong influences on the actuation properties of an electroactive polymer and thus on the device’s overall behavior. As a result, an analysis of the figures of merit (FOMs) involving all relevant material parameters for the transverse strain, the blocking force, and the energy density was carried out, making it possible to determine the choice of polymer matrix in order to achieve a high actuator performance. Another purpose of this work was to demonstrate the possibility of accurately measuring the free deflection without the application of an external force and inversely measuring the blocking force under quasi-static displacement. The experimental results show good electrostrictive characteristics of the plasticized terpolymer under relatively low electric fields.