Theoretically, separating the positive and negative charge centers of the chain segments of dielectric elastomers (DEs) is a viable alternative to the conventional decoration of chain backbone with polar handles, since it can dramatically increase the dipole vector and hence the dielectric constant (ε') of the DEs while circumvent the undesired impact of the decorated polar handles on the dielectric loss (tan δ). Herein, a novel and universal method is demonstrated to achieve effective separation of the charge centers of chain segments in homogeneous DEs by steric hindrance engineering, i.e., by incorporating a series of different included angle-containing building blocks into the networks. Both experimental and simulation results have shown that the introduction of these building blocks can create a spatially fixed included angle between two adjacent chain segments, thus separating the charge center of the associated region. Accordingly, incorporating a minimal amount of these building blocks (≈5 mol%) can lead to a considerably sharp increase (≈50%) in the ε' of the DEs while maintaining an extremely low tan δ (≈0.006@1 kHz), indicating that this methodology can substantially optimize the dielectric performance of DEs based on a completely different mechanism from the established methods.
Keywords: charge center; dielectric constant; dielectric elastomer; dipole moment.
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