Synthesis of polysiloxane elastomers modified with sulfonyl side groups and their electromechanical response

Dielectric elastomer transducers are elastic capacitors that respond to mechanical or electrical stress. They can be used in applications such as millimeter-sized soft robots and harvesters of the energy contained in ocean waves. The dielectric component of these capacitors is a thin elastic film, preferably made of a material having a high dielectric permittivity. When properly designed, these materials convert electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice versa, as well as thermal energy into electrical energy and vice versa. Whether a polymer can be used for one or the other application is determined by its glass transition temperature (T_g), which should be significantly below room temperature for the former and around room temperature for the latter function. Herein, we report a polysiloxane elastomer modified with polar sulfonyl side groups to contribute to this field with a powerful new material. This material has a dielectric permittivity as high as 18.4 at 10 kHz and 20 °C, a relatively low conductivity of 5 × 10^-10 S cm^-1, and a large actuation strain of 12% at an electric field of 11.4 V μm^-1 (0.25 Hz and 400 V). At 0.5 Hz and 400 V, the actuator showed a stable actuation of 9% over 1000 cycles. The material exhibited a T_g of -13.6 °C, which although is well below room temperature affected the material's response in actuators, which shows significant differences in the response at different frequencies and temperatures and in films with different thicknesses.