Issue 46, 2013
From the journal:

RSC Advances

Variable stiffness material based on rigid low-melting-point-alloy microstructures embedded in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)†

Bryan E. Schubert*a  and  Dario Floreanoa  

* Corresponding authors

a Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
E-mail: bryan.schubert@epfl.ch

Abstract

Materials with controllable stiffness are of great interest to many fields, including medicine and robotics. In this paper we develop a new type of variable stiffness material based on the combination of a rigid low-melting-point-alloy (LMPA) microstructure embedded in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). This material can transition between rigid and soft states by controlling the phase of the LMPA through efficient, direct Joule-heating of the LMPA microstructure. The devices tested demonstrate a relative stiffness change of >25× (elastic modulus is 40 MPa when LMPA is solid and 1.5 MPa when LMPA is liquid) and a fast transition from rigid to soft states (<1 s) at low power (<500 mW). Additionally, the material possesses inherent state (soft and rigid) and strain sensing (GF = 0.8) based on resistance changes.

Graphical abstract: Variable stiffness material based on rigid low-melting-point-alloy microstructures embedded in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA44412K
Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Aug 2013
Accepted
04 Oct 2013
First published
16 Oct 2013

RSC Adv., 2013,3, 24671-24679

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Variable stiffness material based on rigid low-melting-point-alloy microstructures embedded in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)

B. E. Schubert and D. Floreano, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 24671 DOI: 10.1039/C3RA44412K

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