Eliminating the Misconceptions Regarding the Usage of Commercially Available Silicone Elastomers in Thin Film Actuators

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are actively being studied to develop soft transducers including DE actuators (DEAs). Poly(dimethylsiloxane) is a popular elastomer component and known for yielding a relatively low dielectric constant (ε′) for DEAs. Herein, a novel polysiloxane‐based DE, namely, DOWSIL ME 7540 Electroactive Elastomer is reported, offering ε′ = 5.2–5.5 over a broad frequency range that is nearly two times as high as that for commercially popular SYLGARD 184 Silicone Elastomer as a comparative DE. Weibull analysis is useful for statistically evaluating dielectric strength (DS). ME 7540 DE attains DS = 63.8 V μm−1, which is only 16% lower than DS = 75.7 V μm−1 obtained with 184 DE. The material parameters obtained by fitting uniaxial extension results with the Yeoh model are used to simulate an equibiaxial stress–stretch ratio (λib) curve, with i = 1 or 2, and the relationship between voltage and λ1b. Simulation and actuation experiments confirm that ME 7540 DE performs better than 184 DE over one million cycles. With these advantages, ME 7540 DE will help accelerate not only fundamental studies but also developments in real‐life applications in the DEA field. A large‐scalable high‐dielectric‐constant polysiloxane dielectric elastomer (DE) offers many advantages over a commercially popular poly(dimethylsiloxane) DE from mechanical and electrical perspectives. The newly developed DE‐based thin film, coupled with a suitable compliant electrode, is proven to be successfully actuated at much lower voltage over one million cycles owing to its well‐tailored materials properties.