Although soft electronic materials are of significant importance for flexible devices, most them derived from commercial polymer elastomers, such as polydimethylsiloxane, polyurethane and Ecoflex. In this work, citric acid-based degradable polyester elastomers prepared by a melt polycondensation process, utilizing acid, 1,8-octanediol poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) monomers. Furthermore, poly(1,8-...

The molecular mobility of beta-D-fructose was studied by thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC) in the amorphous solid state. The amorphous solid samples were prepared in such a way that the tautomeric mixture was near the equilibrium composition. A broad secondary relaxation was observed, that merges, at high temperatures, with the alpha relaxation. The alpha relaxation temperatur...

In this article we present mechanical measurements of three representative elastomers used in soft robotic systems: Sylgard 184, Smooth-Sil 950, and EcoFlex 00-30. Our aim is to demonstrate the effects of the nonlinear, time-dependent properties of these materials to facilitate improved dynamic modeling of soft robotic components. We employ uniaxial pull-to-failure tests, cyclic loading tests, ...

Thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) characteristics of Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) electrets are studies in the temperature range 30 to 210 C as functions of the polarizing field (5 to 100kV/cm) and polarizing temperature (40 to 80C). The TSDC spectra comprise two maxima, namely, β and α with their respective locations around 90 C and 172.5 C. These are attributed to dipoleorient...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of silverized elastomers on mutans streptococci in dental plaque. METHODS Forty patients undergoing orthodontic treatment were randomly placed into 1 of 2 groups. We examined the maxillary right and left central incisors and premolars, and the mandibular right and left canines of all participants. We ligated the r...

Existing soft ionic conductors fall into two distinct categories: liquid-rich containing large amounts of liquid electrolytes (≈70–90 wt.% water for hydrogels and ≈20–80 liquids ionogels), liquid-free that do not contain components (e.g., conductive elastomers). However, they are often plagued by dehydration, leakage toxic liquids, air aging. Here, using hydrophobic polymer networks hydrophilic...

Flexible pressure sensors are crucial components for the next generation wearable devices to monitor human physiological conditions. In this paper, we present a novel resistive pressure sensor based on hybrid composites made from carbon nanotube (CNT) for the conductive coating layer and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers as the substrate. The high sensitivity of these sensors is attributed...

Soft pneumatic actuators with a channel network (pneu-net) based on thermoplastic elastomers are compatible fused deposition modeling (FDM). However, conventional filament-based (FDM) printers not well suited for shore hardness (Sh < 70A). Therefore, in this study, pellet-based FDM printer was used to print of Sh18A. Additionally, the method allowed situ integration soft piezoresistive sensi...