Electromechanical characterization of a new synthetic rubber membrane for dielectric elastomer transducers

Dielectric Elastomers (DE) are incompressible polymeric solids that experience finite elastic deformations and are electrically non-conductive. Stacking multiple DE films separated by compliant electrodes makes a deformable capacitor transducer, namely a DE Transducer (DET), which can expand in area while shrinking in thickness and vice versa. DETs can be used as solid-state actuators, sensors and generators. The development of an effective DET requires the accurate knowledge of the constitutive behavior of the employed DE material. In this context, this paper reports the experimental results of the electromechanical characterization of a new synthetic rubber membrane (TheraBan^TM Latex Free Resistance Band Yellow (P/N #11726), or TheraBand LFRB-Y in short) to be used as elastic dielectric in DETs. Comparison of the obtained results with those of the best quoted Natural Rubber membrane (OPPO BAND 8003) is also provided that shows the superior performances of TheraBand LFRB-Y both in terms of reduced mechanical hysteresis and of higher dielectric strength stability to ambient wetness conditions.