A Dielectric Elastomer and Graphene Nanocomposites: A Review

This paper reviews the developments in dielectric elastomer actuator technology for several applications. Dielectric elastomers are a variety of electroactive polymer that deform when subjected to the electric field and are best suited for the designing of wide range of sensors, actuators and bio medical equipments in comparison to piezoelectric materials, shape memory alloys, ionic polymer metallic materials and shape memory alloys because EAPs are light, adaptable, simple to process, economical,and can be fit in with confounded surface and geometries The main disadvantage of this material is the operating electric field is very high and the dielectric constant is very low. There is one way to solve this issue is by using of highly conducting materials as a filler material like graphene oxide (GO)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) or functionalized graphene oxide. EAPs composite with generally low operational voltage (on the request for 50 V/μm) presently permit us to create actuators dependent on this material. The use of these materials as actuators to drive different control, versatility and automated gadgets includes multidiscipline including materials, science, electro-mechanics etc. The present review highlighted the working principle and actuation mechanism of the electroactive polymer (EAPs) which also identified some of the challenges which are associated with these materials.