Giant Electrostriction of Soft Nanocomposites Based on Liquid Crystalline Graphene

High electromechanical coupling is critical to perform effective conversion between mechanical and electrical energy for various applications of electrostrictive polymers. Herein, a giant electrostriction effect is reported in liquid crystalline graphene-doped dielectric elastomers. The materials are formulated by a phase-transfer method which allows the solubilization of graphenic monolayers in nonpolar solvents. Dielectric spectroscopy is combined with tensile test devices to measure the true electrostriction coefficients with differentiating the Maxwell stress effect. Because of their liquid crystal structure, the resultant composites show an ultralarge electrostriction coefficient (∼10^-14 m²/V² at 0.1 Hz) coupled with good reproducibility during cycles at high deformation rates. This work offers a promising pathway to design high-performance electrostrictive polymer composites as well as to provide insights into mechanisms of true electrostriction in electrically heterogeneous systems. The use of obtained materials as a supersensitive capacitive sensor is demonstrated.