Fabrication of a High-Performance Bending Actuator Made with a PVC Gel

Abstract

This paper proposes a small, transparent, electroactive and highly deformable poly vinyl chloride (PVC) gel-based bending actuator. The effect of the PVC molecular weight and plasticizer content on the performance of the bending actuator is investigated. Three PVCs are prepared with different molecular weights (low molecular weight: PVCL, 116,000; medium molecular weight: PVCM, 239,000; and high molecular weight: PVCH, 282,000) and mixed with plasticizers in various ratios to achieve the best performance of the bending actuator. Experiments are conducted to investigate the bending performance of the actuators based on the prepared PVC gels. Among the prepared actuators, the PVCH-based bending actuator shows the best performance (maximum bending angle: 180°, elapsed time: 3.15 s).