1) Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Pusan National University, San30, Jangjeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, Korea
2) Advanced Ship Engineering Research Center, Pusan National University, San30, Jangjeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, Korea

This study dealt with the electrostrictive responses of polyurethane (PU) actuators with different microphase separation structure, which was a promising candidate for a material used in polymer actuators. In order to construct PUs with different higher-order structure, PUs with various types of polyol were synthesized: poly(neopentyl glycol adipate) (PNAD), poly(tetramethylene glycol) (PTMG), and poly(dimethyl siloxnae) (PDMS). Synthesized PU was characterized by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and gel per-meation chromatography (GPC). Thermal analysis and mechanical properties of PU films were carried out with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and UTM (universal testing machine), respectively. And PU actuator was formed in a type of monomorph, which was made by carbon black electrodes on the both surfaces of PU film by spin coating method. Actuation behavior was mainly influenced on microphase separation structure and mechanical property of PU. In result, PU actuator with PNAD, polyester urethane, had the largest field-induced displacement.

the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2009-0065385) and Advanced Ship Engineering Research Center (ASERC)