Influence of genetically modified proteins on the electro-mechanical properties of silicone elastomers

Comanici, F. (Speaker)
Skov, A. L. (Panel member)

Activity: Talks and presentations › Conference presentations

Description

Poster presentation

Period	26 Mar 2024
Event title	SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Long Beach, United States, CaliforniaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Documents & Links

Among the soft elastomers used for dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), silicone elastomers have excelled due to their high elasticity, robustness, and biocompatibility. However, silicone elastomers have a low dielectric constant and require the use of high voltages, which might not be considered safe in wearable applications. In this work, we propose the incorporation of biologically tailored materials in silicone elastomers to improve the dielectric properties and provide mechanical stability. The amyloid proteins are semicrystalline and, thus, offer a biologically derived and biocompatible analog to the synthetic polymer dielectrics traditionally used in high electric field environments. It has been proven before that the crystallinity and orientation of the proteins can be used to tailor the breakdown strength (200-400 V/µm for fibroin protein). Our approach uses genetically engineered proteins, which display a small peptide/protein domain and thereby the dielectric properties can easily be modulated.