Polymer electromechanical mechanisms

Farinholt, K. and Leo, D. (2004). Modeling of electromechanical charge sensing in ionic polymer transducers. Mechanics of Materials 36, pp. 421-433. 

Ferroelectric Ceramic—Polymer Composites. The motivation for the development of composite ferroelectric materials arose from the need for a combination of desirable properties that often caimot be obtained in single-phase materials. For example, in an electromechanical transducer, the piezoelectric sensitivity might be maximized and the density minimized to obtain a good acoustic matching with water, and the transducer made mechanically flexible to conform to a curved surface (see COMPOSITE MATERIALS, CERAMiC-MATRix). 

Scheme 2 Some possibilities for the pharmaceutical technologies and approaches to be used in personalized medicine, ranging from simple liquid oral dose forms where the dose can be varied by volume, through responsive systems, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), GPS-directed systems (see text) transdermal systems, thin film technologies with passive or active release mechanisms, combination tablet or capsule dose forms, and what we term dosed solid platforms, for example, aqueous dispersible polymer, solid gel or matrix material into which precise doses of drag can be absorbed.

Shankar R, Ghosh TK, Spontak RJ (2007) Electromechanical response of nanostructured polymer systems with no mechanical pre-strain. Macromol Rapid Commun 28 1142... 

Koh et al. [6] have rigorously modeled the electromechanics of this interaction for the simplified case of uniform biaxial stretching of an incompressible polymer film including many important effects such as the nonlinear stiffness behavior of the polymer film and the variation in breakdown field with the state of strain. With regard to the latter effect, Pelrine et al. [5] showed the dramatic effect of prestrain on the performance of dielectric elastomers (specifically silicones and acrylics) as actuators. We would expect the same breakdown enhancement effects to be involved with regard to power generation. There are many additional effects that may be important, such as electrical and mechanical loss mechanisms, interaction with the environment or circuits, frequency, and temperature-dependent effects on material parameters. The analysis by Koh provides the state equations... 

TABLE 16.2 Comparison between Two Mechanical Properties of Different Actuating Materials Skeletal Muscles, Thermomechanical (Thermal Liquid Crystals and Thermal Shape Memory Alloys), Electrochemomechanical (Conducting Polymers and Carbon Nanotubes) and Electromechanical (Ionic Polymer Metal Composites, Field Driven Liquid Crystal Elastomers, Dielectric Elastomers)... 

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