Effects of temperature and dielectric permittivity on electrorheological properties of elastomers

Acrylic elastomers, SAR, SBR and SIS thin sheets were fabricated through solvent casting and electrorheological properties were measured and tested towards electroactive applications such as artificial muscle and/or MEMS devices. Experiments were carried under the oscillatory shear mode with applied electric field strength varying from 0 to 2 kV/mm. The effect of temperature on the storage and loss modulus (G\´ and G"), storage modulus sensitivity (DeltaG\´/G₀\´), and dielectric permittivity of acrylic elastomers (AR70, AR71, and AR72), SAR, SBR and SIS D1112P were studied between 300-370 K. AR71 has the highest dielectric permittivity (epsiv\´) of 55.98 pF/m, whereas SIS D1112P has the lowest dielectric constant of about 24.28 pF/m. From our data, we can classify the elastomers into two types. Acrylic group has positive storage modulus sensitivity with increasing temperature and dielectric permittivity, and the styrene copolymer group has negative storage modulus sensitivity.