An investigation of the electrical dynamics in electroactive polymer transducers with resistive electrodes

To pursue a variable-capacitance working principle, transducers based on soft electroactive polymers (EAPs) need deformable electrodes that match the compliance and stretchability of the EAP polymeric substrates. A variety of manufacturing procedures are available to create conductive materials that can achieve this, including solutions that can provide remarkably low resistivity. However, the simplest and most feasible options often involve the use of particle-filled (e.g. carbon-filled) polymer composites, which, while easy to produce, tend to exhibit relatively high resistivity. This high level of resistivity, combined with the inherent capacitance of EAP transducers, introduces dynamic effects in the devices electrical activation, which may affect performance. This paper investigates the impact of electrode resistivity on the electrical dynamics of EAP devices, combining continuum models and experimental validations. We use a continuum generalisation of known resistive-capacitive (RC) transmission line models to accurately predict voltage gradients on the surfaces of electrostatic transducers subject to rapidly varying voltages. We then present an experimental validation by measuring the spatial voltage distributions over carbon-based polymeric electrodes of dielectric elastomer (DE) transducers, and find a good agreement with our model predictions. We use our validated model to provide general estimates of the typical charging time and limit working frequency ranges of DE devices as a function of their dimensional scale and electrode sheet resistance. Our model provides useful indications for designing compliant electrodes in EAP transducers given target performance, or to understand the working limits of devices with given geometry and dielectric-electrode properties.