TiO₂nanoparticles modified polydimethylsiloxane with fast response time and increased dielectric constant

Abstract

Polymer nanocomposite has shown great potential and impact on a broad range of techniques since its properties can be tailored by nano-fillers. This paper reports a polymer nanocomposite with enhanced electro-mechanical performance by mixing TiO2 nanoparticles into polydimethylsiloxane. Nanocomposites with particle concentration up to 30 wt% were prepared. High energy ball milling and polyether-modified silicone dispersant were used to suppress the agglomeration and ensure a stable dispersion. Properties of the nanocomposites, i.e. elastic modulus, response time, dielectric constant and optical transmittance, were tuned by modifying the particle concentration. Optimized electro-mechanical properties were observed at 5 wt% TiO2 particles. This nanocomposite was applied to a MEMS spatial light modulator, which was fabricated using micro-machining technology. The device was driven by a 200 V dc voltage and had a response time of 6 µs.

The fabrication of dielectric elastomers from silicone rubber and barium titanate: employing equi-biaxial pre-stretch to achieve large deformations

“…(2) that a material of high dielectric constant combined with a low elastic modulus can achieve a large strain when subjected to a low electric field [14,17]. Therefore, particles such as titanium dioxide TiO 2 [18,17], copper-phthalocyanine oligomer (CPO) [19] and BT [20] that all possess high dielectric constants are widely used as fillers, to enhance the dielectric constants of DE materials. This allowed actuated area strains of 15 % -35 % to be achieved.…”

Recent Progress in Nanoparticle Dispersion Using Bead Mill

“…et al, 2002) Silicone (silylating agent) TiO 2 (Ouyang G. et al, 2012) Propyltrimethoxysilane (TMS) ZrO 2 , SiO 2 , BTO (Luo K. et al, 2008;Nomoto H. et al, 2014;Yang X. and Liu Z.-H., 2010) Coupling agent…”

A simple method for reducing inevitable dielectric loss in high-permittivity dielectric elastomers

“…A great deal of focus during recent years has therefore been on increasing the dielectric permittivity of silicone DEs [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], which in turn leads to increased elastomer energy density and thereby increased strain at a given electric field. Large increases in dielectric permittivity have most often been accomplished through the use of metal oxide fillers creating silicone elastomer composites [11][12][13][14][15]. Such composite-type systems, though, do include the disadvantage that the Young's modulus of the elastomer is significantly increased -very often to a greater extent than dielectric permittivity -and thus no overall improvement in actuation strain is actually obtained.…”