Transparent Tunable Acoustic Absorber Membrane Using Inkjet-Printed PEDOT:PSS Thin-Film Compliant Electrodes

Milan Shrestha, Zhenbo Lu, Gih Keong Lau*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

Window glasses can block noise from outdoor, but they reverberate sound within a large indoor space. Microperforated glass absorbers have been developed to absorb sound over a fixed but narrow bandwidth. To tune the frequency spectrum of acoustic absorption, we developed a transparent tunable acoustic absorber based on microperforated dielectric elastomer actuator (MPDEA) and transparent compliant electrodes. Such transparent compliant electrodes were inkjet printed from Triton X-plasticized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) ink, which shows improved wettability on the acrylate dielectric elastomer substrate. These transparent polymeric electrodes are softer with uptake of moisture while being self-clearable and durable. A single layer of MPDEA using two inkjet-printed electrodes is 78.64% clear, but the clarity of a two-layer MPDEA decreases to 61.8%. Among the two designs, the two-layer MPDEA exhibits a broader acoustic absorption bandwidth of 444 Hz for absorbing more than 80% of the sound energy. Inactivated resonant frequency of this MPDEA is 1170 Hz, whereas the 6 kV activation can reduce the resonant frequency for 15.2% by causing 9% hole-diameter contraction. This transparent tunable acoustic absorber can be fitted to window glass; its acoustic performance is better than that of translucent curtains.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)39942-39951
Number of pages10
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume10
Issue number46
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • PEDOT
  • PSS
  • acoustic absorber
  • dielectric elastomer actuator
  • inkjet printing
  • transparent compliant electrodes

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