Dielectric Elastomers for Energy Harvesting

Thomson, Gordon; Yurchenko, Daniil; Val, Dimitri V.

doi:10.5772/intechopen.74136

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Over the last three decades, there has been an increased focus on the development of materials that can work as actuators or energy harvesting devices [ 1 , 2 ]. In these applications, mechanical energy from kinetic processes such as human walking, wind, or sea waves is converted to direct electrical current.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Siloxane Matrix Molecular Weight Influences the Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Metal Complexes and Dielectric Elastomer

Soroceanu¹,

Stiubianu²

2021

Materials

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Siloxane-based elastomers are some of the most sought-after materials for the construction of actuators and equipment for energy harvesting devices. This article focuses on changes of the mechanical (breaking stress, breaking strain, Young’s modulus) and dielectric properties for elastomers prepared with silicones, induced by the variation of molecular weight of the matrix, with three different silicone polymers having 60,000 g/mol, 150,000 g/mol, and 450,000 g/mol (from GPC measurements). Multiple siloxane elastomers were crosslinked with methyltriacetoxysilane using the sol-gel route. The dielectric permittivity values of the elastomers were also enhanced with two different complex structures containing siloxane bond and 3d transition metals as filler materials for polydimethylsiloxane polymers with various molecular weights. The dielectric spectroscopy tests demonstrated a small decrease (5%) for the values of the dielectric permittivity in relation to increased molecular weight of the siloxane polymer, both for samples prepared with pure polymer and for samples with metal complexes. The samples of nanocomposites showed a >50% increase of dielectric permittivity values relative to samples prepared of pure siloxane elastomer. The thermal tests demonstrated that the nanocomposites retained thermal stability similar with samples prepared of pure siloxane elastomer. The behavior under controlled conditions of humidity showed a trend of increased water vapor sorption with increasing molecular weight but an overall hydrophobic stable character of nanocomposites.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Siloxane Matrix Molecular Weight Influences the Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Metal Complexes and Dielectric Elastomer

Soroceanu¹,

Stiubianu²

2021

Materials

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“…There already exist proof of technologies that fulfil multiple functions. Dielectric elastomers are usually known as active elements able to convert electrical into mechanical energy through the Maxwell stress effect, but for their nature and with no structural modifications they can be used as stretch or pressure sensors (reading the capacity variation due to induced deformation) or as accumulators (they are structurally equivalent to capacitors and thus able to store electrical charge) or energy harvesters ( Figure 1C ) ( Thomson et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2020 ). SMAs are used as active actuators exploiting their shape memory effect, but they can be also used as variable stiffness passive materials (stiffness variation induced by phase change) or as strain sensors (electrical resistance change through stress induced martensite) ( Figure 1D ).…”

Section: Hardware Multifunctionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Intelligence in Soft Robotics Through Hardware Multifunctionality

Cianchetti

2021

Front. Robot. AI

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The soft robotics community is currently wondering what the future of soft robotics is. Therefore, it is very important to identify the directions in which the community should focus its efforts to consolidate its impact. The identification of convincing applications is a priority, especially to demonstrate that some achievements already represent an attractive alternative to current technological approaches in specific scenarios. However, most of the added value of soft robotics has been only theoretically grasped. Embodied Intelligence, being of these theoretical principles, represents an interesting approach to fully exploit soft robotic’s potential, but a pragmatic application of this theory still remains difficult and very limited. A different design approach could be beneficial, i.e., the integration of a certain degree of continuous adaptability in the hardware functionalities of the robot, namely, a “flexible” design enabled by hardware components able to fulfill multiple functionalities. In this paper this concept of flexible design is introduced along with its main technological and theoretical basic elements. The potential of the approach is demonstrated through a biological comparison and the feasibility is supported by practical examples with state-of-the-art technologies.

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“…In addition to this new field of research, capacitive transducers have been the subject of renewed interest 11 , in particular thanks to recent progresses on dielectric elastomers which have a higher permittivity than air 12 – 15 . Typically, dielectric elastomers are inserted between compliant electrodes to form a multilayered electrical capacitor with deformation dependent capacitance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of a soft dielectric composite into a cantilever beam for mechanical energy harvesting, comparison between capacitive and triboelectric transducers

Pruvost

Smit

Monteux

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Flexible dielectrics that harvest mechanical energy via electrostatic effects are excellent candidates as power sources for wearable electronics or autonomous sensors. The integration of a soft dielectric composite (polydimethylsiloxane PDMS-carbon black CB) into two mechanical energy harvesters is here presented. Both are based on a similar cantilever beam but work on different harvesting principles: variable capacitor and triboelectricity. We show that without an external bias the triboelectric beam harvests a net density power of 0.3 $$\upmu \mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$$ μ W / cm 2 under a sinusoidal acceleration of 3.9g at 40 Hz. In a variable capacitor configuration, a bias of 0.15 $$\mathrm{V}/\upmu \mathrm{m}$$ V / μ m is required to get the same energy harvesting performance under the same working conditions. As variable capacitors’ harvesting performance are quadratically dependent on the applied bias, increasing the bias allows the system to harvest energy much more efficiently than the triboelectric one. The present results make CB/PDMS composites promising for autonomous portable multifunctional systems and intelligent sensors.

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Dielectric Elastomers for Energy Harvesting

Cited by 16 publications

References 89 publications

Siloxane Matrix Molecular Weight Influences the Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Metal Complexes and Dielectric Elastomer

Siloxane Matrix Molecular Weight Influences the Properties of Nanocomposites Based on Metal Complexes and Dielectric Elastomer

Embodied Intelligence in Soft Robotics Through Hardware Multifunctionality

Integration of a soft dielectric composite into a cantilever beam for mechanical energy harvesting, comparison between capacitive and triboelectric transducers

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