Preparation of π-conjugated truxene/silicone dielectric elastomers with large actuated strain at low electric field

In this paper, we report an effective method for the preparation of polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) containing only 0.5   wt % π -conjugated truxene micromolecule. The as-prepared truxene/PDMS composite had high dieletric constant (k) due to the regularly rigid structures, special π -conjugated structure and monodisperse nature of truxene, which can form a large no. of parallel micro-capacitors under actuated electric field. In addition, the elastic modulus of truxene/PDMS composite was increased slightly only with a good flexibility. As a result, compared to pure silicone elastomer (4.52%), the truxene/PDMS composite exhibited a greater strain of 11.56% at a low electric field of 5.5   V/μm (about 2.56 times increase).