Polythiophene/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber as an artificial muscle

Acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) and blends of poly(3-thiopheneacetic acid)/ acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, NBR/P3TAA, were prepared to investigate electrorheological properties, dielectric properties, and electrical conductivities. Electrorheological properties were carried out under an oscillatory shear mode in range of frequency from 0.1 to 100 rad/s at various electric field strengths from 0 to 2 kV/mm at fixed temperature of 27degC to observe the effects of acrylonitrile content (ACN) in the pure rubbers and particle concentration in the blends. For pure NBR, the storage modulus, G´, increases with increasing electric field strength. The storage modulus response (DeltaG´) are correlated with the dielectric constants (epsiv´) to study the effect of ACN content. With increasing ACN content, the modulus linearly increases with dielectric constants. With the conductive polymer particles added to the highest ACN content rubber matrix, both the modulus and the dielectric constants of blend film increase.