A dual cone actuator with high energy density and long fatigue life by developing a nano-silica reinforced dielectric elastomer composite

Dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) is considered as one of the most promising soft actuators due to its light weight, good flexibility, high actuated strain and energy density. Herein, a novel DEA material is developed by introducing a kind of SiO2 nanoparticles with strong interfacial polarizability into polydimethyl(methylvinyl) siloxane (PMVS). The 7.5 SiO2/PMVS DEA exhibits a high actuated strain of 31.3 % and blocked stress of 68.4 kPa, 2.4 and 2.9 times of pure PMVS DEA. A dual cone DEA (DCDEA) device was self-designed by using 7.5 SiO2/ PMVS films, which possesses a high actuated displacement of 1.3 mm, output force of 0.3 N and energy density of 4.7 J/kg. More importantly, because of the high elasticity and strong interfacial interaction, the 7.5 SiO2/PMVS DCDEA exhibits a long fatigue life of 500,000 times, resulting in a full-life energy density of 2.3 x 106 J/kg, 39 times higher than that of the VHB based DCDEA.