Dielectric elastomer materials for actuators and energy harvesting

The success of dielectric elastomer materials in actuator technology as well as in energy harvesting is much influenced by the material parameters, e. g. breakdown field, dielectric constant, and elastic modulus which have a direct impact on the driving voltage. By increasing the dielectric constant of a material the activation voltage can be decreased, however this increase is very often associated with a decrease in the breakdown field. In this proceeding, dielectric elastomer materials based on polydimethylsiloxanes with increased strain at break and high breakdown fields are presented.