Effects of plasticizers on novel electromechanical actuations with different poly(vinyl chloride) gels

Four different plasticizers were applied to make different poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) gels, poly(vinyl chloride)-bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (PVC-DOP), poly(vinyl chloride)-di-n-butylphthalate, poly(vinyl chloride)-bis(2-ethylhexyl)adipate, and poly-(vinyl chloride)-tris(2-ethylhexyl)trimellitate. In our previous work, we reported that PVC-DOP gel exhibits novel and reversible deformations of creeping and jointlike bending induced by direct current electric fields. In this article, we scrutinize the effects of plasticizers on electromechanical actuations, that is, reversible creeping and bending actuation with four of the different aforementioned gels. We measured the relative creeping distance, creeping area, creeping velocity, current observed, and bending angle as a function of applied electric fields for different PVC gels and found significant differences among them. To explain these variations, we compared the utility of plasticizers on the basis of the properties of different PVC gels, such as plasticizer-retention ability, bending modulus, elongation at break, and the dielectric constant. The mentioned properties of the PVC gels played vital roles on their electromechanical actuations. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.