Nematic elastomers with aligned carbon nanotubes: new electromechanical actuators
Abstract
We demonstrate, for the first time, the large electromechanical response in nematic liquid crystalline elastomers filled with a very low (~0.01%) concentration of carbon nanotubes, aligned along the nematic director at preparation. The nanotubes create a very large effective dielectric anisotropy of the composite. Their local field-induced torque is transmitted to the rubber-elastic network and is registered as the exerted uniaxial stress of order ~1kPa in response to a constant field of order ~1MV/m. We investigate the dependence of the effect on field strength, nanotube concentration and reproducibility under multiple field-on and -off cycles. The results indicate the potential of the nanotube-nematic elastomer composites as electrically driven actuators.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0309216,
title = {Nematic elastomers with aligned carbon nanotubes: new electromechanical actuators},
author = {S. Courty and J. Mine and A. R. Tajbakhsh and E. M. Terentjev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0309216},
year = {2009}
}