Mechanics and actuation properties of bucky gel-based electroactive polymers

Bucky gel-based actuators represent one of the possible ways to exploit the outstanding electrical and mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes. Despite the continuous efforts to develop better devices, the lack of an accepted and simple way of characterizing the actuation mechanisms has often led to misestimate their performances. In this paper we examine some of the main works in literature on this subject, in order to reconsider the proposed actuation models in terms of purely material-dependent parameters instead of geometry-dependent ones. Applying the promoted approach, we demonstrate how proper cross-linking treatments on carbon nanotubes endow bucky gel actuators with superior performance. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All Rights Reserved.