Design of reliable silicone elastomers for dielectric elastomers and stretchable electronics

摘要

Silicone elastomers are widely used due to the favourable properties, such as flexibility, durable dielectric insulation,barrier properties against environmental contaminants and stress-absorbing properties over a wide range of temperatures≈ -100 °C to 250 °C. Additionally they are mechanically reliable over millions of deformation cycles, which makes themideal candidates for dielectric elastomers and stretchable electronics. In research on dielectric elastomers and otheremerging technologies, the most common silicone elastomer utilized is Sylgard 184. One of the main advantages of thisformulation is the low viscosity which allows for easy processing resulting in almost defect-free samples. Furthermore, itscuring is robust and not as sensitive to poisoning as other silicone elastomer formulations. Commonly, the shortcomingsof the final properties of Sylgard 184 are overcome by mixing the base polymer and the curing agent in non‐stoichiometricratios and also by blending it with softer types of commercially available elastomers. Researchers rarely formulate theirown tailor‐made silicone elastomers, probably due to the scarcity of information in literature on how to do this. This reportaims to equip the beginners in silicone research with knowledge on how to prepare silicone elastomers with specificproperties without compromising the mechanical integrity of the elastomer and thereby avoiding mechanical failure. Herethe main focus is put on designing and formulating soft, reliable, and reproducible elastomers.