Deformation mechanisms of electrostrictive graft elastomer

The electrostrictive graft elastomer is a new type of electroactive polymer. Recently developed by NASA, it consists of flexible backbone chains, each with side chains, called grafts. Neighboring backbone grafts physically cross-link and form crystal units. The flexible backbone chain and the crystal graft unit consist of polarized monomers, which contain atoms with electric partial charges, generating dipole moments. When the elastomer is placed into an electric field, external rotating moments are applied to the dipole moment. This stimulates electrostrictive strain in the graft elastomer. In this paper, the deformation of the elastomer under the action of an electric field is explained by means of two dominant mechanisms: crystal graft unit rotation and backbone chain reorientation. A two-dimensional computational model is established to analyze the deformation.