Preparation of π-conjugated truxene/silicone dielectric elastomers with large actuated strain at low electric field

Abstract In this paper, we report an effective method for the preparation of polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) containing only 0.5 wt % π -conjugated truxene micromolecule. The as-prepared truxene/PDMS composite had high dieletric constant (k) due to the regularly rigid structures, special π -conjugated structure and monodisperse nature of truxene, which can form a large no. of parallel micro-capacitors under actuated electric field. In addition, the elastic modulus of truxene/PDMS composite was increased slightly only with a good flexibility. As a result, compared to pure silicone elastomer (4.52%), the truxene/PDMS composite exhibited a greater strain of 11.56% at a low electric field of 5.5 V/μm (about 2.56 times increase).