If the electrical resistance of a material depends upon external straining, the material exhibits ‘piezoresistivity’. The piezoresistive behavior has been realized in an electrically conductive elastomer composite where the microstructure of conductive fillers can be changed under finite deformation of elastomer, resulting in the change of the composite resistivity. In this paper, we analyze th...

The need for mechanical manipulation during the curing of conventional liquid crystal elastomers diminishes their applicability in the field of shape-programmable soft materials and future applications in additive manufacturing. Here we report on polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers, novel composite materials that eliminate this difficulty. Their thermal shape memory anisotropy is imprin...

Radiation processing involves the use of natural or manmade sources of high energy radiation on an industrial scale. The principle of radiation processing is the ability of high energy radiation to produce reactive cations, anions and free radicals in materials. The industrial applications of the radiation processing of plastics and composites include polymerization, cross-linking, degradation ...

A thin sheet of nematic elastomer attains 3D configurations depending on the nematic director field upon heating. In this Letter, we describe the intrinsic geometry of such a sheet and derive an expression for the metric induced by general nematic director fields. Furthermore, we investigate the reverse problem of constructing a director field that induces a specified 2D geometry. We provide an...

The purpose of the study was to investigate the biocompatibility of experimental elastomers, E580 and E590. The experimental elastomers and the control--a clinically used elastomer--were implanted into the subcutaneous tissue of rats. The tissue reactions were examined histologically on the 3rd, 7th, 14th, 28th, and 56th day after implantation. It was found that there were some irritant respons...

A study on the toughening of polyamide-6 (PA-6) with a new elastomeric modifier, brominated poly(isobutylene-co-p-methylstyrene) (BrXP-50), was conducted. Morphological analyses and mechanical tests were combined to evaluate the toughening mechanisms of modified PA-6 and the fracture mechanism of unmodified PA-6. We conclude that the fracture mechanism of unmodified PA-6 in the impact test is c...

Meandering beams, crenellated surfaces, and zigzag-shaped electrodes are employed as compliant elements in micro-scale applications ranging from springs attached to proof masses in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) to stretchable electrodes in flexible electronics and dielectric elastomer actuators. An understanding of how the meander shape affects the stiffness of these structures would ...

Toy bricks are an ideal platform for the cost-effective rapid prototyping of a tabletop tensile tester with measurement accuracy on par with expensive, commercially available laboratory equipment. Here, a tester is presented that is not only a versatile demonstration device in mechanics, electronics, and physics education and an eye-catcher on exhibitions, but also a powerful tool for stretchab...

We introduce a family of soft-matter capacitors and inductors composed of microchannels of liquid-phase gallium–indium–tin alloy (galinstan) embedded in a soft silicone elastomer (Ecoflex R © 00-30). In contrast to conventional (rigid) electronics, these circuit elements remain electronically functional even when stretched to several times their natural length. As the surrounding elastomer stre...

Over the years, many materials have been used as fillers in rubber compounds. In this sense, filler is a diluent and is used primarily to lower volume cost. With use, all fillers modify certain physical properties of the compound in addition to lowering cost. Therefore, lower cost is generally achieved at the expense of other desirable properties and all compounds are compromises with various t...