Smart materials have garnered attention in the development of novel actuators due to their ability to respond to various stimuli such as light, heat, electric field, magnetic field, and more. Compared to traditional actuators, smart materials based soft actuators offer advantages such as flexibility, conformability, better biomimicking ability, lower cost, and higher power-to-weight ratio. These advantages are ideal for the field of urban air mobility where there is a need for strong and lightweight designs whilst maintaining user comfort to encourage widespread public adoption.Piezoelectric materials are extensively used as sensors and actuators due to its piezoelectric property. In previous works, piezoelectric property was enhanced by increasing overall degree of crystallinity, polar b crystals, and dielectric constant by the addition and alignment of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in a piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix. The resulting increase in piezoelectric property was demonstrated through its high actuation of 570 µm.The current study investigates the development of a nanocomposite that can exhibit both piezoelectric and electromagnetic effects in terms of sensing and actuation, respectively. To achieve this, iron (III) oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were attached to the surfaces of functionalized single walled carbon nanotubes (f-SWCNT), and the resulting nanofiller was embedded into a PVDF matrix. The Fe3O4 will provide magnetic actuation while the SWCNT will enhance the sensing performance of PVDF through its piezoelectric property. The study investigates the magnetoelectric effect that is created from the coupling of the two stimuli smart materials, the crystallinity formation and alignment of PVDF, and the resulting performance. Initial results show that at 2 wt.% (f-CNT - (40 wt.%)Fe3O4)/PVDF, the thin nanocomposite is able to bend 6.5 mm using a simple fridge magnet.With the combination of the macro-scale magnetic actuation and the accurate piezoelectric sensing, a self-sensing actuator can be developed in a single material. This is also easily controlled and compact due to its simple electric power source. This study provides insight to future research utilizing piezoelectric based materials for application in soft robotics.

Hybrid Piezo-Magnetic Responsive Self-Sensing Actuator Through Crystallinity Promotion of Piezoelectric Polyvinylidene Fluoride Embedded With Functionalized Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes With Iron (Iii) Oxide Nanoparticles

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/SMASIS/SMASIS2021/volume/85499

ASME 2021 Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems (SMASIS2021)

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