Semiseparated biphasic bicontinuous dielectric elastomer for high-performance artificial muscle.

Abstract

Electrically driven dielectric elastomer artificial muscles represent a transformative advancement in the field of soft robotics. However, their output performance has encountered a bottleneck owing to the insufficient electromechanical sensitivity of dielectric elastomers. We present a hetero-cross-linking-induced phase separation strategy to design semiseparated biphasic bicontinuous dielectric elastomers with a high electromechanical sensitivity of 360 per megapascal. Our strategy harnesses varying silicone elastomer cross-linking mechanisms to form an interconnected dielectric phase within a soft mechanical phase in the resultant elastomers. These elastomer-based artificial muscles simultaneously exhibit high energy density and power density, as well as ultralong life span under low-driving fields. Applications involve a robotic arm with large stroke and untethered soft crawling robots with multimodal locomotion, showcasing their versatility.