High-strain ionomeric–ionic liquid electroactive actuators

Transport modeling in ionomeric polymer transducers and its relationship to electromechanical coupling

“…For instance, there is mounting evidence that the interface between the metal electrode and the ionomeric polymer plays a critical role in the electromechanical transduction. 10 Modeling the spatially dependent diffusion properties and geometric properties of the polymer-metal interface is very difficult with a closed-form analysis, but it is a straightforward extension of the computational framework developed in this paper. Similarly, modeling the effects of ion blocking boundary conditions or boundary conditions with nonzero flux terms can be accomodated within the present framework, whereas it would be difficult to easily model these effects with a closed-form solution.…”

Layer-by-layer self-assembled conductor network composites in ionic polymer metal composite actuators with high strain response

“…[4][5][6][7] Since then, much research effort has been devoted to this class of EAPs with the objective of further improving the electromechanical performance properties such as the actuation speed, strain level, and efficiency. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Figure 1͑a͒ illustrates schematically such an ionic polymer bending actuator in which the accumulation and depletion of cations at the cathode and anode, respectively, create bending of the ionic polymer membrane under an electrical signal. Experimental results have indicated that a high population of the excess charges at the electrodes is highly desirable in order to generate high electromechanical actuation.…”

“…To realize that, porous electrodes which offer large electrode areas in contact with ionomers are often utilized in this class of actuators. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] One widely investigated ionic polymer metal composite ͑IPMC͒ uses a chemical reduction method to deposit precious metals to Nafion ͑a perfluorosulfonated ionomer developed by DuPont͒ membrane surfaces, in which nanosized metal particles penetrate into the Nafion membrane to form porous electrodes. [5][6][7]11,14 More recently, a direct assembly method in which conductive nanoparticles were mixed with a Nafion ͑or an ionomer͒ solution and this mixture is directly deposited on the Nafion ͑or an ionomer͒ membrane to fabricate IPMC was developed.…”

“…[5][6][7]11,14 More recently, a direct assembly method in which conductive nanoparticles were mixed with a Nafion ͑or an ionomer͒ solution and this mixture is directly deposited on the Nafion ͑or an ionomer͒ membrane to fabricate IPMC was developed. 8,9,12,13 The direct assembly method to fabricate IPMCs is attractive because it allows for the use of a broad range of nanosized conductors for the electrodes such as carbon nanotubes. 13 It also simplifies the fabrication process of IPMCs and enhances actuator manufacturing repeatability.…”

Composites, Multifunctional

“…Actuators and sensors can be made by an ionic poly mer metal composite (IPMC) [3,8,9,56,57,74,75,76,89], with a potential application as artificial muscles [3,8,9,10, such as salts [3], to achieve its functionality. The metal 56,57,67,76,94,95,112,114].…”