Improvement of Power Generation Performance of Dielectric Elastomer Generators

Dielectric elastomer provides a unique conversion method for mechanical energy to electric energy with soft, light, quiet characteristics. The authors investigated the effects of input voltage, pre-stretch, viscoelasticity and charge leakage on the energy density and the energy conversion efficiency of dielectric elastomer generators (DEG) by both experiments and theoretical analysis. Furthermore, the energy density of the DEG reached 800 J/kg by changing the electric circuit and electro-mechanical cycles.