The authors report an electrothermal actuator, which is fabricated by involving carbon nanotube network into the silicone elastomer. The actuators exhibit excellent performances as good as normal dielectric elastomer actuators while working under much lower voltages (e.g., 1.5Vmm−1). They are longitudinal actuators and there is no need for stacking or rolling sheets of materials. In addition, they can satisfy the demand of different voltage applications ranging from dozens of voltages to thousands of voltages by using different carbon nanotube loading composites. Visible maximal strain of 4.4% occurs at an electric power intensity around 0.03Wmm−3.

In this work the authors investigated the electrical conducting properties of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) networks in the flexible polydimethylsiloxane rubber as a function of applied voltages. The results indicated that the I-V curves showed nonlinear relationships, which can be fitted to quadratic functions. The electrical resistance of the samples varies with the voltages more sharply in lower range. The nonlinear mechanism was related to the materials system including both the MWNTs and the matrix material. Furthermore, the I-V characteristic of the MWNT network/ZnO nanocomposite layer junction has shown a well rectified behavior at low voltages.