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2012
Conference Paper
Titel
Carbon nanotube based stretchable optically transparent electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators
Abstract
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) show promise for number of applications. Significant research and industrial interest lies in development of vibrotactile displays for consumer electronics. One of the most significant challenges in development is the lack of viable solutions to obtain stretchable optically transparent electrodes. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) when used as electrodes provide both electrical conductivity and transparency. Furthermore, high aspect ratio of the CNTs is essential as it allows the electrodes to be designed to comply with the deformations of the elastomer. However, as elastomeric films possess different surface characteristics than the substrates typically used to deposit CNTs, experimental investigations had to be undertaken to evaluate the compatibility of those materials. The goal of this work was to determine preferred material combination for manufacturing of transparent electrodes on the 3M VHB film. Moreover, several coating methods with various process parameters were evaluated for preparation of electrodes and their influence on actuation properties. It has been shown that coatings based on CNTs can be used as transparent electrodes for stretchable actuator systems. Additionally, investigations on various coating methods showed differences in the quality of the prepared electrodes and the superior performance, in terms of actuation and optical quality, of samples prepared by airbrush technique over those prepared by inkjet was demonstrated.
Author(s)