title: All-organic electrostrictive polymer composites with low driving electrical voltages for micro-fluidic pump applications.
abstract: This paper focuses on the improvement of a relaxor ferroelectric terpolymer, i.e., poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE-CFE)], filled with a bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). The developed material gave rise to a significantly increased longitudinal electrostrictive strain, as well as an increased mechanical energy density under a relatively low electric field. These features were attributed to the considerably enhanced dielectric permittivity and a decreased Young modulus as a result of the introduction of only small DEHP plasticizer molecules. In addition, the plasticizer-filled terpolymer only exhibited a slight decrease of the dielectric breakdown strength, which was a great advantage with respect to the traditional polymer-based electrostrictive composites. More importantly, the approach proposed herein is promising for the future development and scale-up of new high-performance electrostrictive dielectrics under low applied electrical fields through modification simply by blending with a low-cost plasticizer. An experimental demonstration based on a flexible micro-fluidic application is described at the end of this paper, confirming the attractive characteristics of the proposed materials as well as the feasibility of integrating them as micro-actuators in small-scale devices.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Minh Quyen
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Fabien
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Capsal
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Galineau
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ganet
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Xunqian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) Florida State University Materials Research Building 2005 Levy Ave, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA.
authors.forename: Mingchia Dawn
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon INL-UMR5270, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, F-69622, France.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Chateaux
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon INL-UMR5270, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, F-69622, France.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.affiliation: Université de Lyon, Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon INL-UMR5270, CNRS, INSA de Lyon, 7 av. Jean Capelle, bât. Blaise Pascal, Villeurbanne, F-69621, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Malhaire
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génie Electrique et Ferroélectricité (LGEF), INSA Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, France.
authors.forename: Pierre-Jean
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Cottinet
authors.affiliation: High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) Florida State University Materials Research Building 2005 Levy Ave, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liang