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Composite films have functioned as chemical bending actuators, where stretchable conducting fabrics were joined to both surfaces of ionomer films. This phenomenon shows that a direct metallization of either electroless or electrolytic plating having a metal dendrite formation on the ionomer film is not essential for functioning as actuators. Conducting fabric polymer composite (CFPC) actuators can be easily fabricated by a simple adhesion process using flexible conducting fabrics as electrodes. Due to their excellent contraction and expansion capabilities, gold‐ and copper‐plated knitted fabrics were employed and stably bound to Nafion‐117 film. Au‐CFPC actuators demonstrated a maximum bending displacement of ±2.5 mm at ±2 V. Cu‐CFPC gave a smaller displacement of ±0.7 mm at ±2 V, having no reverse displacement. The method described here is widely applicable, introducing conducting layers on various flexible, stretchable, and polymer substrates. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The viscosity of aqueous and ethylene glycol (EG)/water solutions of sodium poly(styrenesulfonate) was measured in the presence and absence of a foreign salt in the shear rate range of 100-1350 s'1. The viscosity exhibited a substantial shear-thinning effect in both the water and binary solution at low-salt conditions: the effect was nearly independent of the EG content although the viscosity decreased markedly. With increasing salt concentration, the viscosity and the shear-thinning effect became smaller. Attention was drawn to the fact that the flexible ionic polymers and rigid ionic polymer latices displayed similar concentration and shear rate dependencies, which indicates that the conformation change effect invoked to explain the viscosity behavior of flexible ionic polymers does not play an important role.

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