ELECTROSTRICTION OF HIGHLY SWOLLEN POLYMER GEL - POSSIBLE APPLICATION FOR CELL ACTUATOR

A gel of poly(vinyl alcohol) highly swollen with dimethyl sulfoxide was demonstrated to actuate at a much faster rate (more than 1000 times) than those reported on conventional gel actuators in air and to flap a wing of 12.5 cm at a rate of 2 Hz with a span of 10 cm by periodically applying electric field. The action (8% in length) induced by the electric field reached several hundreds times larger than those reported on the conventional ferroelectric solid materials. The electrostrictive gel was, thus, found to be a promising candidate material as a novel type of actuator or artificial muscle by having overcome some difficulties in responding time, electrochemical reactions on the electrodes, and magnitude of action in conventional methods or materials. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.