Printable transparent conductive ink for dielectric elastomer-based tunable acoustic absorber

Recently wearable sensors and electroactive polymer technologies have spotlighted polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and acrylic-based dielectric elastomers (DEs). However, their low surface energy poses challenges for ink-based electrode deposition. Thin, stretchable electrodes are crucial to make sensors and electroactive polymers (EAPs) using these elastomers, but ink materials struggle to form uniform films due to the low surface energy. Plasma treatments only help temporarily and could result in brittle surfaces prone to cracking. To resolve these problems, we developed a composite ink made of PDMS and PEDOT:PSS that uniformly coats on such DE substrates through methods like blade casting and screen printing and serves as transparent compliant electrodes. Using this, we devised a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) based smart acoustic absorber that can adapt to varying noise frequencies. Our design features a bending actuator that can adjust the open ratio of the absorber to actively tune the optimal noise absorption range through high-voltage activations.