Ionic Polymer-Metal Composites (IPMCs) as Impact Sensors

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential of using IPMC as a flexible impact sensor to be used in typical impact protective devices like a protective headgear to estimate the severity level of head impacts. To that end, IPMC strips were embedded into two layers of protective dilatant material and several impact testings were performed. Results of output IPMC voltage and impact acceleration were captured and analyzed. IPMCs appear to present a potential as impact sensors. In so doing, small strips of either Platinum or Gold chemically-plated IPMCs were used. Results of IPMC voltage output and impact accelerations were reported. The results indicate that IPMCs can be used as flexible impact sensors.

An investigation of multimodal sensing capabilities of ionic polymer-metal composites

“…The migration of hydrated cations depends on the structure of the base material (DuPont Nafion ® and Asahi Glass Flemion ® ) and how uniform the electrodes are plated on the base material. If deformations such as bending, twisting, rolling, turning, twirling, whirling, etc are physically applied to a typical small IPMC strip, they can generate a few millivolt signals behaving like a sensor or an energy harvester [24][25][26] corresponding to the sensing configurations of the IPMC strip.…”

Novel Configurations of Slit Tubular Soft Robotic Actuators and Sensors made with Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMCs)

“…If the plated electrodes are arranged in a non-symmetric configuration, the imposed voltage can induce many kinds of deformations such as twisting, rolling, turning, twirling, whirling and non-symmetric bending deformation. Alternatively, if such deformations are physically applied to an IPMC strip they generate a voltage signal (few millivolts for typical small samples) as sensors and energy harvesters [25][26][27].…”