Effects of uniaxial and biaxial strain on molecular structure of VHB 4910 dielectric elastomer

This work reports the dependence of Raman spectra for unstrained, uniaxially and equi-biaxially pre-strained VHB 4910 dielectric elastomer. Typical band analysis techniques are used to determine the effect of strain on molecular structure. Distinct increase and decrease in fitted width of 2922 cm⁻¹ band is observed for uniaxial and biaxial strained sample respectively. Interestingly a new band is observed to emerge at peak position of 2957 cm⁻¹, as function of biaxial strain that signifies the phase transition from amorphous to crystalline state. It is also found that strain induced band broadening is significant on band at 824 and 2922 cm which functionalize the soft amorphous state and acrylates structure. These results suggest that kinetics of strain induced crystallization as consequences of pre-strain that scope the establishment of structural-properties relation toward material development for high efficient actuators.