Various Actuating Motions of Conducting Polymers Actuators on Inorganic Conductive Substrate Formed from Polypyrrole and Gold

Abstract

In order to create more flexible and robust soft actuators, organic/inorganic hybrid actuating fibers were prepared by coating gold fibers in polypyrrole using electropolymerization. The linear, coiled, and helical hybrid fibers were prepared by deforming gold fibers in advance. The obtained fibers exhibit various actuating motions, such as bending, stretching, and rotating motions, due to shrinking and expanding of polypyrrole by doping and de-doping of lithium cations. Merit of the actuating fibers prepared in this research is that the fibers are thin and can be easily combined. Hence, the actuating forces of the fibers caused by doping and de-doping can be amplified by combining the fibers. As a result, heavier weights could be lifted, proportional to the number of fibers combined.