The creasing instability of elastomer films under compression is studied by a combination of experiment and numerical simulation. Experimentally, we attach a stress-free film on a much thicker and stiffer pre-stretched substrate. When the substrate is partially released, the film is uniaxially compressed, leading to formation of an array of creases beyond a critical strain. The profile of the f...

Refrigeration effects can be obtained from elastomers classified as “ideal rubber” by operating over a cycle similar to that of the Carnot cycle. The interesting properties of ideal rubber have long been recognized, with most investigations of potential thermodynamic cycles devoted to power cycles. This paper focuses on the development of refrigeration cycles constructed from ideal rubber refri...

We describe an approach to print composite polymers in high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) architectures that can be rapidly transformed to a new permanent configuration directly by heating. The permanent shape of a component results from the programmed time evolution of the printed shape upon heating via the design of the architecture and process parameters of a composite consisting of a gl...

We describe an experimental methodology for the study of chemical self-organization in micropatterned reaction systems. Our approach is based on office-printer-assisted soft lithography and allows the fabrication of centimeter-scale devices with reactor units as small as 50 μm. The devices are made from the elastomeric material poly(dimethylsiloxane) and are filled with a modified Belousov-Zhab...

We study the flat phase of nematic elastomer membranes with rotational symmetry spontaneously broken by in-plane nematic order. Such state is characterized by a vanishing elastic modulus for simple shear and soft transverse phonons. At harmonic level, in-plane orientational (nematic) order is stable to thermal fluctuations, that lead to short-range in-plane translational (phonon) correlations. ...

The development of flexible polymer monofilament fiber strain sensors have many applications in both wearable computing (clothing, gloves, etc.) and robotics design (large deformation control). For example, a high-stretch monofilament sensor could be integrated into robotic arm design, easily stretching over joints or along curved surfaces. As a monofilament, the sensor can be woven into or int...

The residual levels and migration behavior of volatile substances were detected using HS-GC/MS for acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) toys, thermoplastic elastomer toys, and rubber toys made from 1,3-butadiene and styrene found on the Japanese market. The maximum residual level of these volatile substances was 2600 μg/g of styrene in ABS toys. In particular, the levels of known car...

Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) for harvesting electrical energy from mechanical work have been demonstrated but the energy densities achieved are still small compared with theoretical predictions. In this study, signifi cant improvements in energy density (560 J/kg with a power density of 280 W/ kg and an effi ciency of 27%) are achieved using equi-biaxial stretching, a mechanical loadi...