Poly(o-phenylenediamine)/ poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene adipate) blend as electroactive material for actuator application

Flexible and efficient electroactive polymeric materials that can convert electrical energy into mechanical work are potential be used as artificial muscles in soft robots, sensors and wearable technology. This work reports on the development of flexible electroactive material based on poly(butylene succinate-co-butylene adipate) (PBSA) as a matrix and poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) as a conductive filler. The PBSA film flexibility was modified by using dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as a plasticizer. The doped PoPD (dPoPD) particles with the polar free = NH substitution were synthesized and doped with perchloric acid. The prepared dPoPD/PBSA blends possess the enhanced mechanical and electrical properties compared to the pristine PBSA film. The dPoPD/PBSA blend with the dPoPD loading of 0.05%v/v provided the highest storage modulus (2.2 × 106 Pa) at 100 rad/s, the dielectric constant (28) at 40 Hz, and the electrical conductivity (2.67 × 10−9 S/cm). On the other hands, the 0.01%v/v dPoPD/PBSA blend showed the highest deflection distance of 9.71 mm, whereas the highest dielectrophoresis force density was obtained from the 0.05%v/v dPoPD/PBSA blend at 70 V/mm. This work presents the new biobased/conductive polymer blends and demonstrates that the bending response and the required dielectrophoresis force are not inclusively related and each can be individually tailored to meet the soft robot requirements.