Effect of ionic liquids as additives for improving the performance of plasticized PVC gel actuators

Abstract

Abstract Dielectric gels are low-density materials that exhibit a mechanical reaction to electric stimuli. They have recently attracted attention for their potential applications in actuators for wearable robotics. In order to lower the driving voltages of actuators consisting of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gels (PVC gels with a plasticizer), we studied the generated strain of PVC gel actuators with four types of ionic liquids (ILs) additives: trihexyltetradecyl phosphonium chloride (THTDPCl), tetradodecylammonium chloride (TDACl ), tributylmethyl ammonium chloride (TBMACl), and 1-Butyl-3-mthylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (BMIMPF 6 ). We found that the actuator responses for PVC gels with additives of 0.01 wt% THTDPCl and TDACl were almost two times larger than those for PVC gels without ILs at low applied voltages ranging from 200 to 600 V. Conversely, the displacement responses of PVC gels with the same IL content but of TBMACl and BMIMPF 6 were lower than those of gels without ILs. We studied the electrochemical properties of PVC gels with ILs and proposed an improved electromechanical model based on one proposed in a previous study. Based on the proposed electromechanical model, the effect of the IL additives for lowering the driving voltage can be clearly described.