Electroactive Ionic Soft Actuators with Monolithically Integrated Gold Nanocomposite Electrodes

Abstract

Electroactive ionic gel/metal nanocomposites are produced by implanting supersonically accelerated neutral gold nanoparticles into a novel chemically crosslinked ion conductive soft polymer. The ionic gel consists of chemically crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) and polyacrylonitrile networks, blended with halloysite nanoclays and imidazolium-based ionic liquid. The material exhibits mechanical properties similar to that of elastomers (Young's modulus ≈ 0.35 MPa) together with high ionic conductivity. The fabrication of thin (≈100 nm thick) nanostructured compliant electrodes by means of supersonic cluster beam implantation (SCBI) does not significantly alter the mechanical properties of the soft polymer and provides controlled electrical properties and large surface area for ions storage. SCBI is cost effective and suitable for the scaleup manufacturing of electroactive soft actuators. This study reports the high-strain electromechanical actuation performance of the novel ionic gel/metal nanocomposites in a low-voltage regime (from 0.1 to 5 V), with long-term stability up to 76 000 cycles with no electrode delamination or deterioration. The observed behavior is due to both the intrinsic features of the ionic gel (elasticity and ionic transport capability) and the electrical and morphological features of the electrodes, providing low specific resistance (<100 Ω cm ), high electrochemical capacitance (≈mF g ), and minimal mechanical stress at the polymer/metal composite interface upon deformation.

Significance of Nanomaterials in Wearables: A Review on Wearable Actuators and Sensors

“…Metal nanoparticles, [44,62] electroactive polymers, [32] conductive polymers, [17] ionic liquids (ILs), [34,63] and carbon-based materials [64] are highlights of the group. Metal nanoparticles, [44,62] electroactive polymers, [32] conductive polymers, [17] ionic liquids (ILs), [34,63] and carbon-based materials [64] are highlights of the group.…”

The evolution of Ag nanoparticles inside a gas aggregation cluster source

“…The application of two or even three magnetrons in the same aggregation chamber enabled the production of heterogeneous NPs. In spite of the huge number of studies that dealt with the gas phase preparation of metal NPs and their applications, little concern has been raised with regard to the processes occurring inside the aggregation chamber. A number of works dealing with modeling of the NP trajectories have been performed, although the experimental approaches are scarce.…”

Poly(ethylene glycol) Diacrylate Based Electro‐Active Ionic Elastomer

“…This work demonstrated a high‐performance soft actuator based on PEGDA and TS with PEDOT:PSS electrodes. This is illustrated by comparing 1 V induced 0.38% strain for our system with results reported in recent review article by Park et al5 In Figure S2, Supporting Information, we compare the TS/PEGDA/IL/PEDOT:PSS system with other iEAPs such as poly(styerenesulphonate‐b‐methylbutylene) (P17(PSS‐b‐PMB)(75));4 polyether‐segmented polyurethaneurea;19 PS‐PMMA‐PS:49 Graphene‐Nafion composite;40 Nafion;40 poly(styerenesulphonate‐b‐methylbutylene) (PSS‐b‐PMB/ZImS);6 ionic gel/metal nano‐composite;27 sulfonated polybenzimiduzole42 and Ionic liquid crystal elastomer,44 and find that our system has the second best performance after PSS‐b‐PMB (sulfonated block copolymer) which has a strain of 0.47% at 1 V.…”