Electro-Active Paper as a Flexible Mechanical Sensor, Actuator and Energy Harvesting Transducer: A Review

Abstract

Electro-active paper (EAPap) is a cellulose-based smart material that has shown promising results in a variety of smart applications (e.g., vibration sensor, piezo-speaker, bending actuator) with the merits of being flexible, lightweight, fracture tolerant, biodegradable, naturally abundant, cheap, biocompatible, and with the ability to form hybrid nanocomposites. This paper presents a review of the characterization and application of EAPap as a flexible mechanical vibration/strain sensor, bending actuator, and vibration energy harvester. The working mechanism of EAPap is explained along with the various parameters and factors that influence the sensing, actuation, and energy harvesting capabilities of EAPap. Although the piezoelectricity of EAPap is comparable to that of commercially available polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), EAPap has the preferable merits in terms of natural abundance and ample capacity of chemical modification. The article would provide guidelines for the characterization and application of EAPap in mechanical sensing, actuation, and vibration energy scavenging, along with the possible limitations and future research prospects.

An isogeometric scaled boundary plate formulation for the analysis of ionic electroactive paper

“…The unordered regions are defined by water molecules which are attached to ions such as sodium. These regions are also affected by an external electric field by means of an ionic migration [8]. This means that the water molecules, which are attached to ions, are able to travel to the anode of the actuator creating a heterogeneous density and electric charge redistribution over the actuator thickness.…”

“…Consequently, the bending effect of the EAPap actuator can be attributed to shear piezoelectricity as well as the ionic migration. Nevertheless, it is assumed that the main cause of the bending deformation is defined by ionic migration [8].…”

“…Furthermore, EAPap can also be fabricated with hybrid materials such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes, conducting polymers and ionic liquids in order to enhance the ionic migration under dry ambient conditions [6]. The electrodes of the actuator are generally produced by coating the EAPap material with a thin gold film in the range of nanometers [8]. Also, here an actuation enhancement is possible by considering fishbone patterns for the electrodes structure [9].…”

Real-Time Evaluation of the Mechanical Performance and Residual Life of a Notching Mold Using Embedded PVDF Sensors and SVM Criteria

“…The accurate assessment of mechanical molds requires direct measurement of contact force with the assistance of machine learning [12,13,14]. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film is a polymer that exhibits piezoelectric behavior after polarization [15,16]. The high β-phase and piezoelectric performance of PVDF films enables the conversion of mechanical deformations into electrical signals.…”

Synthesis of magnetite@MIL‐53(Fe)‐NH‐CS2 via postsynthetic modification for extraction/separation of ultra‐trace Hg (II) from some real samples and its subsequent quantification by CVAAS

“…To solve this problem and to present accurate and reliable results, a separation/preconcentration step is mandatory. [3] Various separation/preconcentration methods such as liquid-liquid extraction, [5,6] cloud point extraction, [7] solid phase extraction (SPE), [8][9][10] ion exchange, [11] coprecipitation, [12] hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction, [13,14] dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, [15][16][17] electromembrane extraction, [18,19] and single drop microextraction [20] have reported for separation/preconcentration of mercury in real matrixes. Among the mentioned extraction methods, SPE is the most employed separation/preconcentration technique prior to determination of metals ions.…”