Nematic elastomers with aligned carbon nanotubes: New electromechanical actuators

Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge - Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK

Received: 10 September 2003
Accepted: 20 October 2003

Abstract

We demonstrate, for the first time, the large electromechanical response in nematic liquid-crystalline elastomers filled with a very low () concentration of carbon nanotubes, aligned along the nematic director at preparation. The nanotubes create a very large effective dielectric anisotropy of the composite. Their local field-induced torque is transmitted to the rubber elastic network and is registered as the exerted uniaxial stress of order  kPa in response to a constant field of order  MV/m. We investigate the dependence of the effect on field strength, nanotube concentration and reproducibility under multiple field-on and -off cycles. The results indicate the potential of the nanotube-nematic elastomer composites as electrically driven actuators.