Polymer-based dielectrics (PDs) with improved permittivity (k) have considerable
applications including capacitors, actuator devices and electrical power systems due to their …

In response to a stimulus, a soft material deforms, and the deformation provides a function.
We call such a material a soft active material (SAM). This review focuses on one class of soft …

Dielectric elastomers (DEs) are a type of multifunctional materials with salient features that
are very attractive in developing soft, lightweight, and small-scale transducers and robotics …

Active soft materials that change shape on demand are of interest for a myriad of
applications, including soft robotics, biomedical devices, and adaptive systems. Despite …

The resistance of a material to the growth of a crack is characterized by fracture toughness
under monotonic load, and by fatigue threshold under cyclic load. The fatigue threshold of …

The research interest on phononic crystals now takes a new turn towards the acoustic/elastic
analogies of the quantum concepts, eg, the quantum Hall, quantum spin Hall and quantum …

Soft robotics is an emerging area that attracts more and more attention. The intrinsic
flexibility and compliance of soft materials and structures would endow novel functions with …

Designing smart devices with tunable shapes has important applications in industrial
manufacture. In this paper, we investigate the nonlinear deformation and the morphological …

Inspired by natural creatures, soft robots possess the unique advantages of large actuation
and excellent adaptability. Untethered designs of soft robots are drawing more attention to …

For many applications of dielectric elastomer actuators, it is desirable to replace the carbon-
grease electrodes with stretchable, solid-state electrodes. Here, we attach thin layers of a …