(163bp) Development of Polymer Blend between Poly(P-Phenylene) and Acrylic Elastomer for Electroactive Application

Electroactive polymer (EAP) is the polymer which can respond electric field. In our work, polymer blends between PPP and acrylic rubber (Nipol AR71) were fabricated in order to overcome several weak points of each polymer. Experiments were carried under the oscillatory shear mode and with applied electric field strength varying from 0 to 2 kV/mm. The dynamic moduli, G' and G", of the pure AR71 depended on the temperature and electric field strength; the storage modulus (G') monotonically increased with increasing electric field. The storage modulus sensitivity ( ) increased with electric field strength and attained maximum values of 64% at the E = 2 kV/mm. For the polymer blends with the undoped particle concentrations of 5, 10, 20, 25, 30 and 40 vol%, the dynamic moduli, G' and G" of each blend, were higher than those of pure AR71. Their storage modulus sensitivity ( ) increased with electric field strength; it attained a maximum value about 97% at E = 2 kV/mm. The effect of temperature, of pure AR71 and polymer blends between, was studied between 27-77 °C. The storage modulus increased linearly with temperature.