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Abstract Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are typical electro‐active polymers that can achieve an electro‐actuated deformation under an applied electric field. However, obtaining a large low‐field‐actuated strain of DEs is still a key challenge, which is critical to their practical application range. Herein, a typical CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 @TiO 2 (CCTO@TiO 2 ) core–shell‐structured nanowires were synthesized by the micro‐emulsion method. Additionally, a series of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐based DE composites combining variable proportions of CCTO@TiO 2 were prepared. The CCTO@TiO 2 nanowires with the design of both decreasing dielectric constant from core to shell and a high aspect ratio can provide larger heterogeneous interfaces for the DE composites, leading to a promoted interfacial polarization. The maximum electro‐actuated strain of 37.66% is achieved from the DE composite incorporated with 20 wt% CCTO@TiO 2 when subjected to a relatively low electric field of 40 V/μm, which is 14 times higher than that of pure PDMS (strain ~2.5%). Moreover, the composite exhibits the largest electro‐actuated strain (45.83%) under the electric field approaching its breakdown strength of 43.57 V/μm. The results demonstrate that the one‐dimensional core–shell nanowires have a positive effect on improving the low‐field‐actuated strain of DE composites. This research reveals an effective and feasible method to prepare the DE composites exhibiting enhanced low‐field electro‐actuated characteristics.
Gao et al. (Mon,) studied this question.