Self-Healable, Self-Repairable, and Recyclable Electrically Responsive Artificial Muscles.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Robotics

Background:

• Self-healing elastomers are crucial for advanced applications like artificial muscles.
• Existing materials often lack high dielectric permittivity and tunable properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop self-healable, silicone-based elastomers with high and tunable dielectric permittivity.
• To enable applications in artificial muscles and soft robotics.

Main Methods:

• Anionic ring-opening polymerization of cyanopropyl-substituted cyclic siloxanes.
• Tuning material properties by varying component ratios (networks, linear chains, cyclic compounds) with temperature.
• Utilizing active silanolate end groups for self-healing.

Main Results:

• Elastomers exhibit high dielectric permittivity (up to 18.1) and tunable properties.
• Materials demonstrate elastomeric behavior at room temperature and thermoreversible softening at 80°C.
• Actuators show significant actuation strain (3.8% single-layer, 5.4% stack) and self-repair capabilities.

Conclusions:

• The developed elastomers are promising for artificial muscles due to self-healing and reversible actuation.
• Tunable dielectric properties and thermoreversible softening facilitate self-healing and recycling.
• These materials offer a pathway for next-generation soft robotic applications.