A study of electromechanical properties on gelatin at various gel strength as an actuator or an artificial muscle

Abstract

Gelatin is a protein produced by the partial hydrolysis of a collagen extracted from bones, connective tissues, organs, and some intestines of animals. Gelatin has been widely used in the pharmaceutical and medical fields as sealants for vascular, a carrier for drug delivery, wound dressings, and an artificial muscle. In our work, gelatin films were prepared by the film casting method using water as the solvent. The electromechanical properties, thermal properties, and the degree of swelling were measured as the function of gelatin crosslinking ratio or the gel strength, temperature, frequency, and electric field strength. The high, medium, low, and the 3% crosslinked high gel strength gelatin films possess the storage modulus sensitivity values of 2.30, 2.16, 1.26 and 0.49 respectively.