Thermal elastomer composites for soft transducers

Author

Jeong, S.H. ; Chen, S. ; Huo, J. ; Gravier, L. ; Gamstedt, K. ; Liu, J. ; Zhang, S.-L. ; Zhang, Z.-B. ; Wu, Z.G. ; Hjort, K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng. Sci., Angstrom Lab., Uppsala Univ., Uppsala, Sweden

fYear

2015

fDate

21-25 June 2015

Firstpage

1873

Lastpage

1876

Abstract

Thermal elastomer composites (TECs) that are electrically insulating have potential usage in soft transducers targeting thermal sensors and actuators, or thermoelectric generators. In this work, such a TEC is prepared by dispersing droplets of a gallium based liquid alloy (Galinstan) into a polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) base matrix. The results indicate that the TEC is highly elastic and shows an up to three-fold increase in thermal conductivity from that of PDMS. A thermoelectric device with the TEC packaging is demonstrated with a higher efficiency than that with pristine PDMS packaging.

Keywords

actuators; drops; elastomers; filled polymers; liquid alloys; packaging; temperature measurement; temperature sensors; thermal conductivity measurement; thermal insulating materials; thermoelectric conversion; transducers; Galinstan; PDMS base matrix; PDMS packaging; TEC packaging; actuator; droplet dispersion; electrical insulation; gallium based liquid alloy; polydimethysiloxane base matrix; soft transducer; thermal conductivity; thermal elastomer composite; thermal sensor; thermoelectric generator device; Conductivity; Electronic packaging thermal management; Liquids; Metals; Packaging; Thermal conductivity; Transducers; PDMS; Thermal conductivity; elastomer composite; liquid alloy; soft packaging; thermal interface;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS), 2015 Transducers - 2015 18th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2015.7181315

Filename

7181315