Enhanced electromechanical performances in plasticizer modified electrostrictive polymers

Based on the heterogeneous nature of semi-crystalline terpolymer and the important role that interface polarization plays for dielectric and electromechanical response, small molecular plasticizer bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) was introduced into electrostrictive terpolymer to improve electromechanical performances of electrostrictive terpolymer P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE). As expected, the introduced DEHP contributes to greatly increased dielectric permittivity at low frequency, decreased Young's modulus and moderately reduced dielectric breakdown strength of terpolymers, which are closely related with the increased mobility of polymer chains caused by DEHP. Consequently, DEHP modified terpolymers exhibit well improved electromechanical performance in contrast with pure terpolymer. The evolution of electromechanical performances of modified terpolymer with DEHP loading, electric field and frequency was well investigated for actuator applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.