Highly Electro-responsive Plasticized PVC/FMWCNTs Soft Composites: A Novel Flex Actuator with Functional Characteristics

Publication date: Available online 8 February 2020Source: European Polymer JournalAuthor(s): Imdad Ali, Yang Weimin, Li Xudong, Ahsan Ali, Jiao Zhiwei, Pengcheng Xie, Otavio Augusto Titton Dias, Muhammad Pervaiz, Li Haoyi, Mohini SainAbstractElectro-responsive devices are used in actuators and artificial muscles but susceptible low deformation limits its applications. Herein, we prepared soft composites from functional multi-wall carbon nanotubes (FMWCNTs) and plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The PVC/FMWCNTs soft composite assembled with double layer electrodes functioned as a highly flexible contraction actuator. Furthermore, the chemical structure and surface morphology of the PVC/FMWCNTs composites are characterized by using FT-IR, Raman, XRD, and SEM techniques. The deformation of an optimized soft composite in the designed device is found to be 34% under a specified applied voltage. To the best of our knowledge, this contraction deformation value based on flexible PVC/FMWCNTs soft composites is the highest reported value to date. Moreover, the incorporation of FMWCNTs in plasticized PVC resulted in a high elongation at break of about 500%. The obtained results strongly indicated that the electro-stimulated soft composites have promising applications in soft wearable devices, actuators and artificial muscles.Graphical abstract
Source: European Polymer Journal - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research