Page 40 - Plastics News July 2023

FEATURE

Plastic ‘Muscle’ Pumps Up Soft Robotics
New ferroelectric polymer outperforms traditional piezoelectric polymer composites in robotic and medi-
cal device applications.
“This would enable us to have soft
matter that can carry a high load in
addition to a large strain. So that ma-
terial would then be more of a mimic
of human muscle, one that is close to
human muscle.”

Soft actuators enabled by this material
could replace traditional rigid materi-
als, allowing for greater flexibility. Ac-
tuators change shape when an exter-
nal force — like an electrical charge
— is applied.
However, ferroelectric polymer ac-
tuators typically require a very high
driving field to enact shape change.
The Penn State-led researchers
overcame this obstacle by develop-
ing a percolative ferroelectric poly-
mer nanocomposite and attaching it
to polyvinylidene fluoride to create
obots could soon make use of polymer composites to create high- a network of poles in the polymer:
Rplastic “muscles” thanks to a new performance motion controllers. Ap- The result: Shape change was induced
ferroelectric polymer that excels at plications could include advanced ro- with less than 10% of the energy typi-
converting electrical energy into mo- botics, medical devices, and precision cally needed for ferroelectric phase
tion, according to research led by positioning systems. change.
Penn State.
“Potentially we can now have a type “This new material can be used for
The research, published in the journal of soft robotics that we refer to as ar- many applications that require a low
Natural Materials, found that ferro- tificial muscle,” said study co-author driving field to be effective, such as
electric polymer nanocomposites can Qing Wang, Penn State professor of medical devices, optical devices, and
outperform traditional piezoelectric materials science and engineering. soft robotics,” Wang said.

40 PLASTICS NEWS July 2023